Richie's Picks: THE LONDON EYE MYSTERY by Siobhan Dowd, RH/David Fickling
Books, February 2008, 324p. ISBN: 978-0-375-84976-3
"What goes up must come down
Spinning wheel got to go 'round"
--Blood, Sweat & Tears
"Kat and I tracked Salim's capsule as it made its orbit. When it reached
its highest point, we both said, 'NOW!' at the same time and Kat laughed and I
joined in. That's how we knew we'd been tracking the right one. We saw the
people bunch up as the capsule came back down, facing northeast towards the
automatic camera for the souvenir photograph. They were just dark bits of
jackets, legs, dresses, and sleeves.
"Then the capsule landed. The doors opened and the passengers came out in
twos and threes. They walked off in different directions. Their faces were
smiling. Their paths never crossed again.
"But Salim wasn't among them.
"We waited for the next capsule and the next and the one after that. He
still didn't appear. Somewhere, somehow, in the thirty minutes of riding the
Eye, in his sealed capsule, he had vanished off the face of the earth. This is
how having a funny brain that runs on a different operating system from
other people's helped me to figure out what had happened."
Twelve-year-old Ted's mind does not process like that of the typical person.
He is wired in a fashion that causes him to be "very good at thinking about
facts and how things work." He is a young man with an obsession with and
excellent understanding of weather and weather patterns.
Ted and Kat's cousin Salim and their Aunt Gloria have come visiting them in
London, having given up their home in Manchester in preparation for a move to
New York City. Ted hasn't seen the likeable Salim in years. When asked
what he'd like to do, Salim, who loves a good view, opts for experiencing a spin
on the London Eye. Then, when a random stranger offers them a free ticket,
Salim snags the freebie, leaves his cousins standing in the lengthy ticket
line, boards the Eye, and disappears.
Ted has a "syndrome" that makes it difficult for him to recognize body
language, makes it difficult to cope with others touching him, and often causes
him to take what is said literally: "He and Aunt Gloria walked up to our front
door through our front garden, which Mum says is the size of a postage stamp.
In fact, it's three metres by five and I once worked out that it could fit
22,500 stamps."
Nevertheless, Ted -- whose theories and questions are generally ignored by
most of the adults around him -- uses his unusually-wired mind to examine the
facts from all possible angles in his quest to solve the London Eye Mystery.
"The inspector looked at me without saying anything. The corners of her
lips turned up, which meant she was slightly amused. Then she tapped her nose
with her interlocked fingers. 'So,' she said. 'You'd allow for a margin of
error?'
"'Only a small one,' I said. 'Two per cent.'
"'Two per cent?'
"'In every human observation,' I explained, 'there is a margin of error.
This is because our senses are not foolproof. In fact, some people believe
that one hundred per cent certainty is impossible to achieve.' I stopped and
put my head on one side. 'As humans, we cannot even be sure that the sun will
rise the next day. Our assumption that it will do so is arrived at by a
process of induction. This is a process where probability based on past
observation allows us to predict things like weather patterns--'"
"Walking thru that door
Outside we came
Nowhere at all
Perhaps the answers here
Not there anymore" -- Moody Blues, "House of Four Doors"
THE LONDON EYE MYSTERY is so much fun! Ted is such an engaging and
endearing narrator, and it is so interesting to follow his lines of reasoning as
we,
as readers, try to catch a dropped clue that will give us an edge over the
book's characters in figuring out what has actually befallen Salim. This book
will surely cause readers to consider with newfound respect those classmates
and friends who are wired differently -- and will certainly have some
readers thinking about the weather.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
Moderator, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks
Caldecott '09
**************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides.
(http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation.
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/
* LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
* LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home