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A review by mirandadarrow
The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
4.0
I read this with my 10 year old son, who is on the Autism spectrum (he attends a special only school, which he really likes). I don't usually review the kids books that he and I read together, but this one was really good, especially for kids on the spectrum or who want to learn about someone who deals with those issues. It lead to some good discussions in our house about eye contact, social cues, impulse control over stims, etc.
The plot of this mystery was decent. We liked the "where did Salim go" inquiry, and Ted working with his big sister, sometimes nemesis Kat to get answers. Will liked how none of the adults wanted to even hear what the kids were discovering, but the police were more receptive.
My son and I both got bored by the repeated weather lectures and shipping reports, as he asked me to skip over those parts eventually. I told him that: 1.) they might be important because it's showing what is going on in Ted's mind, so it is part of the clues, and 2.) Ted is obsessed with weather just like my son is obsessed with Minecraft, and would spend all day every day telling everyone he sees about Minecraft. I'm not sure we had any breakthroughs about how tedious those conversations can be for others just yet (crossing fingers for that insight some day), but at least he got to experience the other side and feel the urge to tell Ted "please talk about something else, or just nothing and be quiet."
There were also some Briticisms that lead to discussions about dialects, some of which were familiar from Harry Potter, such as torches. We never did figure out what a "lilo" was, we're picturing a trundle bed, but had plenty of fun picturing Salim and then Kat both trying to sleep on the short Hawai'ian protagonist of Lilo and Stitch.
I thought that the characters and the interactions between them and Ted were realistic and well done for a young audience. My son felt his frustration when he'd figured something out and no-one would listen to him. And his aunt's lashing out at everyone including Ted and Kat, she never really did apologize, and that is also realistic.
Overall it was very enjoyable, and I'm glad that my bookish friend thought to give it to us.
The plot of this mystery was decent. We liked the "where did Salim go" inquiry, and Ted working with his big sister, sometimes nemesis Kat to get answers. Will liked how none of the adults wanted to even hear what the kids were discovering, but the police were more receptive.
My son and I both got bored by the repeated weather lectures and shipping reports, as he asked me to skip over those parts eventually. I told him that: 1.) they might be important because it's showing what is going on in Ted's mind, so it is part of the clues, and 2.) Ted is obsessed with weather just like my son is obsessed with Minecraft, and would spend all day every day telling everyone he sees about Minecraft. I'm not sure we had any breakthroughs about how tedious those conversations can be for others just yet (crossing fingers for that insight some day), but at least he got to experience the other side and feel the urge to tell Ted "please talk about something else, or just nothing and be quiet."
There were also some Briticisms that lead to discussions about dialects, some of which were familiar from Harry Potter, such as torches. We never did figure out what a "lilo" was, we're picturing a trundle bed, but had plenty of fun picturing Salim and then Kat both trying to sleep on the short Hawai'ian protagonist of Lilo and Stitch.
I thought that the characters and the interactions between them and Ted were realistic and well done for a young audience. My son felt his frustration when he'd figured something out and no-one would listen to him. And his aunt's lashing out at everyone including Ted and Kat, she never really did apologize, and that is also realistic.
Overall it was very enjoyable, and I'm glad that my bookish friend thought to give it to us.