The London Eye Mystery: Salim Comes to London

BOOK NAME: The London Eye Mystery
AUTHOR: Siobhan Dowd

Welcome to August’s first book club meeting! We’ve just started reading our book for this month, The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd.

If you have a copy and you’ve read the first five chapters, click “See More” to talk about your book.

If you haven’t gotten to chapter five yet, stop here!

Ted and Kat are two kids living in London. One day, their mom gets a letter saying that her sister Gloria (Aunt Gloria to the kids, otherwise known as Hurricane Gloria) is coming to visit with her son Salim before moving to New York City.

We get to know Ted, who’s brain “works on a different operating system from other people’s.”  Ted has a condition known as Asperger’s syndrome. (You can read the dictionary’s definition of this condition below.) He doesn’t always know how to interpret things that people say, but he’s very good remembering systems, like weather. You probably noticed that Ted enjoys talking about weather.

Have you ever had relatives do you don’t know very well come to stay with you? If you have, what was the visit like?

This book was written in the United Kingdom, and may use some unfamiliar words for things. Are there any that aren’t explained, or that you can’t figure out from how they’re used in sentences? (For example: a “lilo” is an inflatable air mattress.)

Here
are some
words you might not have seen before. (All definitions
from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.)

Anticyclone:
A system of winds that rotates about a center of high atmospheric pressure clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern.

Asperger’s Syndrome:
A developmental disorder resembling autism that is characterized by impaired social interaction, by restricted and repetitive behaviors and activities, and by normal language and cognitive development. Also called Asperger’s disorder.

Mitre:
A liturgical headdress worn by bishops and abbots. Also spelled as miter.

This week, we’ll be reading the chapters 6 through 17. We’ll keep our eyes wide open for clues about what happened to Salim. See you on Wednesday!

-DogEared