Amazon.com
Mark Haddon's bitterly funny debut novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a murder mystery of sorts--one told by an autistic version of Adrian Mole. Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially hopeless, raised in a working-class home by parents who can barely cope with their child's quirks. He takes everything that he sees (or is told) at face value, and is unable to sort out the strange behavior of his elders and peers.
Late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. Wellington's owner finds him cradling her dead dog in his arms, and has him arrested. After spending a night in jail, Christopher resolves--against the objection of his father and neighbors--to discover just who has murdered Wellington. He is encouraged by Siobhan, a social worker at his school, to write a book about his investigations, and the result--quirkily illustrated, with each chapter given its own prime number--is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Haddon's novel is a startling performance. This is the sort of book that could turn condescending, or exploitative, or overly sentimental, or grossly tasteless very easily, but Haddon navigates those dangers with a sureness of touch that is extremely rare among first-time novelists. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is original, clever, and genuinely moving: this one is a must-read. --Jack Illingworth, Amazon.ca
Book Description
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.
This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.
Download Description
Narrated by a fifteen-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions.
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. Routine, order, and predictability shelter him from the messy, wider world. Then, at fifteen, Christopher's carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor's dog, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.
Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents' marriage. As he tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, we are drawn into the workings of Christopher's mind.
And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon's choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotion. The effect is dazzling, making for a novel that is deeply funny, poignant, and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing is a mind that perceives the world literally.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is one of the freshest debuts in years: a comedy, a heartbreaker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.
"Mark Haddon's portrayal of an emotionally dissociated mind is a superb achievement. He is a wise and bleakly funny writer with rare gifts of empathy."
IAN McEWAN, AUTHOR OF
ATONEMENT AND AMSTERDAM
"I have never read anything quite like Mark Haddon's funny and agonizingly honest book, or encountered a narrator more vivid and memorable. I advise you to buy two copies; you won't want to lend yours out."
ARTHUR GOLDEN, AUTHOR OF
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA
"The Curious Incident brims with imagination, empathy, and vision -- plus it's a lot of fun to read."
MYLA GOLDBERG, AUTHOR OF
BEE SEASON
Customer Reviews:
Light read.......2007-10-10
Light, pretty easy ready. Mark does a great job of narrating from an autistic teen's POV. However, that was about it for me. Didn't get too wrapped up in the actual story line, I just enjoyed the frame of reference.
Awesome book!.......2007-10-09
Mark Haddon is skilled at narrating from the point of view of Christopher, an autistic boy. The story of Christopher's investigation weaves in math and numbers. Personally, I love math, and I finished this book in 2 days during a busy weekend! This book is great for all readers: light and amusing.
How the mind works.......2007-10-07
"It was 7 minutes after midnight." Every detail matters in the solution of the mystery of the neighbor's murdered dog, which is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. That's partly because the detective on the case is Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy with autism, a penchant for numbers, a genius for math, and a determination to solve the mystery and write a book.
Clues abound, but Christopher's strictly literal view of the world prevents him from seeing or understanding them, even as he records them. In his mind, metaphors are "lies," and phrases like "raining cats and dogs" and "you'll catch your death from cold" are incomprehensible nonsense. As the story behind Wellington's death unfolds, Haddon masterfully gives the reader the clues that escape Christopher while allowing him to pursue the more logical details he does understand and to get help with the more subtle ones.
Along the way, Christopher offers insight into the autistic mind and people's reaction to it. While he cannot read emotions or pick up on verbal cues and body language (unless they are explained to him; for example, he knows that a raised voice may indicate anger), his mind processes details the average person would miss. While we might see cows and some flowers in a field, he knows how many cows, he can draw each of their individual patterns, and he can name the species of flowers.
Just as Christopher doesn't understand why everyone won't or can't notice these important details, the people he encounters, while quickly picking up that he is different, can't figure out how and adjust themselves. His working-class father tries to, but his understanding of his son seems limited to an intellectual rather than an emotional one. He knows that Christopher hates to be touched and is wise enough to develop a hand signal that signifies love in lieu of a hug, but he doesn't understand at an emotional level the pain that touch causes his son. Not surprisingly, he can become frustrated when Christopher can't behave in the normal way. If Christopher's perception is limited by autism, his father's is limited to what he knows and can see. He cannot feel what it's like to be Christopher any more than Christopher can figure out that his father's quiet, slow speech indicated tightly controlled anger.
As Christopher works on the mystery and his book, he learns how to do things he may not have thought possible; for example, he survives the ordeal of going to a crowded train station and traveling alone. More significantly, he learns how to twist and withhold the truth when necessary. When his father makes him promise not to do something, Christopher rationally determines what he can and cannot do within the very literal sense of the promise, thereby breaking it in spirit. As he pursues his investigation, he seems to grasp that he is on questionable ground according to his own standards, even as he senses that the mystery is important enough to justify his rationalizations. By the end, he can say with pride and with some truth, "I can do anything."
Haddon uses a simple technique to convey the linear, mathematical nature of Christopher's mind and thought process; as the story builds, Christopher begins many if not most of his sentences with "and." "And I bent down . . . And I walked after him . . . And someone said . . . And I said . . . And the man . . . And then I heard . . ." The use of "and" not only sounds genuine, but it is also additive--that is, mathematical. For someone who squares numbers in his head to stay calm, "and" is one way to manage the sensory and emotional overload he encounters in his quest to determine the killer.
Only someone who is autistic can say whether Haddon has captured the thought process and emotions accurately. Even if The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is not a complete insight into the autistic mind, it is a valuable one, and a reminder that not everyone sees the world we see in exactly the same way we do.
©Diane L. Schirf
7 October 2007
Inside a Different Kind of Head.......2007-09-30
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" is a fascinating novel about an autistic teenager who runs away from home. The story is narrated by the disabled teen himself, so the reader is immersed in a world of bizarre obsessions and pointless details, where other human beings are question marks and math problems are a safe haven from the onslaught of unfiltered perceptions. The book is unsentimental -- the narrator never "outgrows" his autism and his parents are hapless and selfish -- yet it succeeds in expanding our minds and deepening our conception of humanity. It does so by giving a vivid human voice to a mentally disabled person. No one who takes the message to heart will ever dismiss a lost soul holding his hands over his ears and groaning in a crowded public place as a "freak."
That said, "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" is not a conventional novel. Since the narrator is autistic, all of the descriptions are flat, the characters are undeveloped, and the dialogue is stenographic. There are long passages like this:
"Then I imagined a red line on the floor and I walked over to the wall where there was a poster which was a list of places to go and it was alphabetical and I saw 'Willesden Green' and it said '$2.20' and then I went to one of the machines and there was a little screen which said 'Press Ticket Type' and I pressed the button that most people had pressed, which was 'Adult Single' and '$2.20,' and the screen said 'Insert $2.20' and I put three '$1 coins ' into the slot and there was a clinking noise and the screen said 'Take a Ticket and Change' and there was a ticket in a little hole at the bottom of the machine and a $.50 coin and a $.20 coin and a $.10 coin and I put the coins in my pocket and I went up to one of the gray gates and I put my ticket into the slot and it sucked it in and it came out on the other side of the gate." ['$' has been substituted for the 'Pound' sign.]
I'm sure this monotonous passage, so filled with meaningless literal details, faithfully recreates the way autistic people perceive the world. But while writing like this can be justified as verisimiltude, it started to eat into my enjoyment of the book after 100 pages or so. The bottomline is that "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" probably works better as phenomenology than as fiction. But it should definitely be read.
An insightful novel........2007-09-26
Mark Haddon does a good job of writing as an autistic child. You really feel like you know what it is like to be in Christopher's mind. A few parts were a little boring, they went into a lot of description about nothing interesting, but that's Christopher's mind at work. You can forgive the boring parts because it's all part of how Christopher thinks. Well done!
Customer Reviews:
Insight Into Aspergers Syndrome.......2007-05-14
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time is fictionally authored by Christopher, a 15 year old boy with Asperger's Disorder - a pervasive developmental disorder. Opening with a curious and dark incident, the story develops into a sometimes humorous, heartwarming and even disturbing narrative following Christopher on his journey. I enjoyed this light and easy-to-read novel. It allows insight into the supposed world of a boy with a form of Autism. This quick and light book would be perfect reading for an airplane flight!
Extremely Raw - and a Super read.......2007-01-01
In a murder, there is usually one mystery to solve, even though plots are far-fetched and convoluted. This murder (of the dog mentioned in the title) has the actual killing, the highly involved world of the detective, and the question of whether "they all live happily ever after" to unravel.
I read this book on recommendation after hearing a very inspiring talk by a Danish gentleman at a software testing conference. His story concerned a company that employed predominantly autistic people. Whilst autism and the less severe Asperger's Syndrome are not the same, there are many similarities. Mark Haddon`s tale does not describe life as a sufferer of AS (Asberger's Syndrome), but more lets the reader experience it. For the story is told in the first person by a 15-year old.
Most people will have come across autistic or AS people, possibly at school, but the condition is only more common today because it is better understood. However, never has society been so excluding of people who do not conform. The 15 year-old Christopher lives in his own world. His world is conveyed very powerfully though the chain of events that begins with him finding a neighbour's dead dog. I had already worked out the unusual chapter numbering by the time this is described, and the narrative is also about writing a book, with a very understanding teacher at the special school giving advice and encouragement.
The killing of the dog is solved in the middle of the book, not by sleuthing, but by confession, and this leads to a paradigm-change for Christopher. Notwithstanding that, the book is a story, a mystery, a parable and a warning for all readers. It may make you feel guilty about how you treated others in the past, but I hope it inspires you to act differently, to consider that the vast majority of individuals have a useful contribution to make to society, and to understand the massive pressures that having a disadvantaged child bring to a once-loving, stable relationship.
Most of all, seeing an AS person, with obsessive behaviour and a compartmentalised world, may help us all realise that autism is not a disease. It is a spectrum. Most of us are on that spectrum, somewhere. Many are further to the autism end than they would have realised hitherto.
Read it. It will do you good.
Peter Morgan, Bath, UK (morganp@supanet.com)
An absolute gem.......2006-12-30
As a person who works with people with autism, I found this book sensitive, touching, and extremely accurate (from an external point of view). I can only surmise that the people who find it "boring" or "poorly written" haven't spent much time in the company of people like Christopher. Otherwise they may see the simple brilliance.
Just a note to other reviewers. Autistic is not a noun. It is an adjective. Referring to a person with Asperger's or another form of ASD as an "autistic" is extremely offensive.
Good overall, but I expected more.......2006-12-28
As a novel from the point of view of an autistic child, "Curious Incident" is an ambitious attempt, but in the end, it left me curiously unsatisfied. The autistic point of view didn't "feel" completely true to me (though I don't pretend to have any special knowledge of its effects; I'm just speaking literarily). It seemed a bit consciously gimmicky. But overall, it was good. Just not quite a top-tier effort. Worth reading, but probably not worth re-reading.
Five stars for being so different as well as a well written book!.......2006-09-01
I really liked that it was 'Christopher's book' we were reading. It made me view things I do naturally as part of social communication, such as laughing to put someone at ease, in a totally different way. Actions like that or touching someone in a friendly manner has a completely different effect on Christopher.
Christopher is a really likable character and you can sympathise with his confusion in this mixed up, top speed world we live in and understand his actions totally, yet at the same time we could understand the thoughts and reactions that strangers showed.
He's such a thinker too and I loved his thoughts on metaphors being lies "...a pig is not like a day and people do not have skeletons in their cupboards." and different facial expressions and how they can mean so many different things...I found myself trying them out! :D
Although I don't have a family member with Asperger's, I do have a brother who is special like Christopher and I could certainly relate to the need for organisation and routine in his life and there were many points in the book that made me smile.
Haddon helps us view situations from all points of view and it was refreshing.
Customer Reviews:
Good audio book for kids with mild high functioning autism asberger syndrome.......2007-05-14
This was bought for my 10 year old Grandson, to listen to a kids version of "mild high functioning autism" and how they related to life as a result. It did this and more. The whole family listened to it, then my Grandson, then my Granddaughter, his 8-year old sister will listen to it this week. It was incredibily effective to help the 10-year old see himself, where is he, how he's progressed positively, and relate to the person in the story, and not feel so different from other kids.
I recommend this highly for anyone with a mildly autistic (high functioning diagnosis) child in the 8-14 year range, or family dealing with an Asberger's Symdrome child. Mostly it makes the child feel better about themselves, and the story is told from a similar view by a similar child. The adults might find it kind of off the beaten path, and wandering too far too long into some subjects. But it can help bond with the kids too --one experience for all, and they can talk about it in a fun way. 6 hours of listening, 6 CDs as I recall. Fiction.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time .......2006-09-05
Part One
Autism is a tendency to view life in terms of one's own needs and desires. Christopher Boone is the perfect example of someone who is cursed and blessed with Autism. The first thing you notice about Christopher is the he is very smart.
"My memory is like a film."(76)
The second thing you know about him is that he doesn't like it when people touch him or talk to him to show emotion. Which is how Christopher got in trouble in the first chapter.
Wellington, Mrs. Shears poodle, was found dead in her front yard, stabbed with a pitchfork. Christopher was at the wrong place at the wrong time and was quickly accused of killing the dog. When the police came they tried to touch Christopher and then he hit the officer. From that point on he made it his personal goal to find out Who Killed Wellington and to write a book about it, this book. It is written very well, like it came straight from Christopher's mind and his logical way of thinking things through. Christopher lives with his dad because his mother had died not very long ago. He wasn't told anything about his mothers' death and he wasn't allowed to go to the funeral.
Christopher was not allowed to ask any questions about his mother or who might have killed Wellington, but that didn't make sense to him.
Page 2
"I decided I was going to find out who killed Wellington even though Father told me to stay out of other people's business...And this is because when people tell you what to do it is usually confusing and does not make sense."(28)
I can only imagine how hard it is for Chris to get through everyday life with the weird concepts he has. For example, the fact that seeing 4 red cars in a row makes that day a "good day", and 4 yellow cars in a row make it a "bad day". Chris obviously has a lot of drive to do things that people don't expect from him. He is going to be the only person in his school to attempt an A-level math test, and solve the mystery of who killed Wellington.
At first I felt bad for Christopher's father. He apparently had just lost his wife to a heart attack and now he is raising an autistic teen-age son by himself. But he is never truly open with Christopher about the loss of his wife or why he wants Chris to leave Wellington's murder alone.
Part Two
Christopher has started investigating Mrs. Shears neighbors and herself for any information on Wellington's murder. One of the first people he runs into is Mrs. Alexander, who lives across the way from Mrs. Shears. This is when Christopher learns that his mom and Mr. Shears were more then just good friends. They actually had an affair and this is why Father did not like Christopher talking to Mrs. Shears, or mentioning Mr. Shears name.
Page 3
"But I don't feel sad about it. Because mother is dead. And because Mr. Shears isn't around anymore. So I would be feeling sad about something that isn't real, or doesn't exist. And that would be stupid."(75)
Some times I think Christopher is really sad about things that are happening to him but he uses logic to make him think that he is not. He is sort of depriving himself of feeling emotion because he doesn't know how to respond to it. Then he can use his maths and numbers to feel calm in a bad situation.
Christopher kept working on his investigations though until his father found the rough draft of his book on the counter. Again, his father yelled at him for continuing to investigate Wellington's murder and he took Christopher's book and hid it from him. Curiosity got to Christopher though and he found his book hidden in a box in his father's bedroom along with letters that were addressed to Christopher.
"I looked at the front of the envelope and I saw that there was a postmark and there was a date on the postmark. It was quite difficult to read but it was posted 16 October 1997, which was 18 months after mother had died."(98)
This was wrong. I knew immediately that Christopher's dad must have been lying to him about his mother's death. I don't think he knew how seriously this could affect Chris's emotional well being. When Chris went back to get the rest of the letters, his reality was confirmed. His mother was still alive, in London at 451 Chapter Rd. and he must go visit her. Because when Father found out Chris had the letters, he admitted to killing Wellington and that his mom was still alive, only married to Mr. Shears. And Christopher didn't fell safe anymore with his Father.
Page 4
Part Three
So that very next day Christopher packed up and took his fathers bank card and left to get on a train to London to find his mother. This took tons of courage on Chris's part because the train is a large crowded place and lots of strangers make him very anxious. It may seem juvenile to not be able to get on a train all by yourself and not be afraid, but it took tons of strength for Chris to do that; even though he hid in the luggage compartment.
Once he got to London and met his mom I couldn't imagine the pain and relief she felt to see her son again.
"I kept thinking something dreadful had happened to you, or that you'd moved away and I'd never find out where you were."(193)
Christopher stayed with his mother until she took him back home to Swindon. He had to face his father and learn that he must trust his dad again, even after all the lies.
"You have to learn to trust me... And I don't care how long it takes... If it's a minute a day and it takes years, I don't care. This is more important then anything else."(218)
And Christopher started to trust again. He knew it would take a long time to get to the same point he was at with his dad before Wellington's murder.
Page 5
I read this book in lots of places, mainly after work or in the car. Basically, whenever I found a spare minute to get a few pages read. My summer gets so busy that I mainly picked this book because it was one of the shorter ones on the list. But I am very glad I read it nonetheless.
I rate this book as an eight. It was written very well. It puts you in the same mind set as Christopher so you could really understand the way he felt in situations. I think the theme of this book was very inspirational. Even though Christopher had his share of emotional and mental set backs, he still beat the odds.
"...I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything."(221)
And that made him feel very :-)
A book that gives you different point of view.......2005-09-17
This book is written in the point of view of Christopher, a boy with Asperger's Syndrome--a kind of autism. What is inside this book is really different than those fiction books I've ever read. Don't be surprised with the grammar and vocabulary used in this book as they are so simple and too detail. It is what on Christopher's mind. His left brain is dominant while his right brain, where the emotions are, is not well developed. As a result, he loves math, logic, and everything that is organized and in order. Meanwhile, he doesn't like being touched, can't understand facial expression, and emotionally numb.
It is fun to read this book as it gives you different point of view of this world. After reading this book, you will know how the information around us are being absorbed differently by the mind of an autism boy. You will also know better why they don't like mixing up with people, don't like visiting new places, and sometimes being cruel to ordinary people.
Overall, this is a good book to read on your spare time.
Customer Reviews:
A narrow focus on a broad subject but very well done.......2006-12-30
The book portrays the point of view of a 15-year-old autistic boy, Christopher. It did it so well that I was tempted to rate the book lower just based on that. It leaves you feeling that you might just understand what autism really is and does it so well that it implies that the specific range of emotion that Christopher has and how he deals with it is what it is all about. My own experiences suggest that this boy's emotional range and response is just one vantage point.
In some cases the incidents that take place in the search for the dog are funny. At the same time the focus on emotion and feelings are so well done that, rather than funny, it might be said that it is chilling.
It took a long time for me to be willing to recommend this book to those in my life who are closer to autism. The book, if anything, is too powerful in getting a message across that is a hard message. No one would want to think that someone they loved really had to spend their life dealing with emotion in this way. On the other hand the more you read the more you want to read. The book was one I read from beginning to end in one sitting.
The author did a great job of using the story to teach us but what he taught us may have narrowed our previous points of view more than it expanded them.
A wonderfully funny and poignant read.......2006-06-30
In the second chapter of this book (actually labelled as "3" because this is the second prime number), we are introduced to Christopher, the narrator, who is writing a mystery novel as a class project. Christopher is an extremely intelligent 15-year old who just happens to be autistic. He begins his tale by relating his discovery of a neighbor's dog, which had been murdered with a garden fork. Because he likes both dogs and mysteries, Christopher sets off to find the killer, but what starts as a story about a dog becomes a story about Christopher's life. Not only do we learn about Christopher's many quirks, but also we learn the explanations for his seemingly irrational behavior, making it seem almost logical. The book is surprising funny, as Christopher, with his limited emotional range, makes the perfect straight man. As a psychologist, I found that the depiction of Christopher rang true, and overall, I found this novel to be a delightful, different, and quick little read.
"My memory is like a film. I press Rewind and Fast Forward.".......2005-10-31
Writing this first novel from the point of view of an autistic 15-year-old, Mark Haddon takes the reader into the chaos of autism and creates a character of such empathy that many readers will begin to feel for the first time what it is like to live a life in which there are no filters to eliminate or order the millions of pieces of information that come to us through our senses every instant of the day. For the autistic person, most stimuli register with equal impact, and Christopher's teacher Siobhan, at the special school he attends, has been trying to teach him to deal with the confusing outside world more effectively. At fifteen he is on the verge of gaining some tenuous control over the mass of stimuli which often sidetrack him.
When the dog across the street is stabbed and dies, Christopher decides to solve the mystery and write a book about it. His favorite novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, becomes his model as he investigates the crime, uncovering many secrets involving his own family in the process. Innocent and honest, he sees things logically and interprets the spoken word literally, unable to recognize the clues which would tell him if someone is being dishonest, devious, or even facetious. As he tells his story in a simple subject-verb-object sentence pattern, Christopher tries to communicate and give order to his world, and the reader can easily see how desperate he is to find some pattern which will enable him to make sense of it.
Christopher's investigations eventually require him to make some remarkably brave decisions, and when he faces his fears and moves beyond his immediate neighborhood, the magnitude of this challenge is both dramatic and poignant. Strange places have always been traumatic for him, and he has difficulties with his emotions. "Feelings," he says, "are just having a picture on the screen in your head." He responds either with logic or with the anger which sometimes overwhelms him as result of fear or frustration, and the reader cannot help aching for him and empathizing with his family.
Christopher's coming-of-age story is most unusual, if not unique, and he ends the book a much more mature 15-year-old than he was when he started. With warmth and humor, Haddon creates a fascinating main character, allowing the reader to share in his world and experience his ups and downs, his trials and successes. In providing a vivid world in which the reader participates vicariously, Haddon fulfills the most important requirements of fiction, entertaining at the same time that he broadens the reader's perspective and allows him to gain knowledge. Mary Whipple
A book that gives you different point of view.......2005-09-17
This book is written in the point of view of Christopher, a boy with Asperger's Syndrome--a kind of autism. What is inside this book is really different than those fiction books I've ever read. Don't be surprised with the grammar and vocabulary used in this book as they are so simple and too detail. It is what on Christopher's mind. His left brain is dominant while his right brain, where the emotions are, is not well developed. As a result, he loves math, logic, and everything that is organized and in order. Meanwhile, he doesn't like being touched, can't understand facial expression, and emotionally numb.
Reading this novel gives you different point of view of this world. After reading this book, you will know how the information around us are being absorbed differently by the mind of an autism boy. You will also know better why they don't like visiting new places, don't like mixing up with people, and sometimes being cruel.
It's fun to read this book on your spare time.
Average customer rating:
- A book that gives you different point of view
|
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (YA ed.)
Mark Haddon
Manufacturer: Doubleday Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Children's Books
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ASIN: 0385662238 |
Book Description
The internationally acclaimed, fantastically unusual detective story written from the perspective of an autistic boy will reach an even wider audience in this specially repackaged edition for young readers.
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but finds it hard to understand other people. When he discovers the suspicious death of a neighbourhood dog, he decides to solve the mystery and write a detective thriller about it. As in all good detective stories, however, the more he unearths, the deeper the mystery gets–for both Christopher and the rest of his family.
Customer Reviews:
A book that gives you different point of view.......2005-09-17
This book is written in the point of view of Christopher, a boy with Asperger's Syndrome--a kind of autism. What is inside this book is really different than those fiction books I've ever read. Don't be surprised with the grammar and vocabulary used in this book as they are so simple and too detail. It is what on Christopher's mind. His left brain is dominant while his right brain, where the emotions are, is not well developed. As a result, he loves math, logic, and everything that is organized and in order. Meanwhile, he doesn't like being touched, can't understand facial expression, and emotionally numb.
It is fun to read this book as it gives you different point of view of this world. After reading this book, you will know how the information around us are being absorbed differently by the mind of an autism boy. You will also know better why they don't like mixing up with people, don't like visiting new places, and sometimes being cruel to ordinary people.
Overall, this is a good book to read on your spare time.
Book Description
Discusses the novel, "The Curious Incident of the Dog".
Customer Reviews:
Get more out of the "Curious Incident" by opening the "box".......2005-08-28
When I suggested "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" as the required summer reading for my campus's new freshmen, I unwittingly committed myself to teaching the group discussion leaders how to review the book. I had lots of ideas, thankfully, but when I discovered the Bookclub-in-a-Box available for Mark Haddon's outstanding novel, I was (appropriately) curious. I'm happy to say that the Box--really a detailed, annotated, fully-referenced booklet--enriches and enhances any review of the fictional Christopher Boone's story. "Box" author Marilyn Herbert cites sources and page numbers for most observations, allowing Christopher to speak for himself. This is not an erudite deconstruction or a Cliff's Notes; on the contrary, the "Box" pulls out passages and sentences I would otherwise have overlooked, and lures me back to get even more out of the original prose. The plot is reviewed, not merely summarized, and every character is offered for exploration as well. I found the Box rich in insights and ideas for my own projects and questions. In short, the Box helped me to do exactly what it promised: to launch a discussion, with myself and then with others who had read the book, with the result that we enjoyed it even more, understood it without picking it apart. The booklet's content is thoughtfully composed, leaving me to wonder at some odd misspellings and typographical errors. And I admit I was disappointed when I ordered a "Box" and a thin (if rich) booklet arrived instead. Perhaps I had expected props and toys, the promise of the term "box," which here really means not a tool kit but a complete package. It's a very good package and I'll look forward to seeing other Boxes in the Herbert's series.
Product Description
Despite his fear of interacting with people, Christopher, an autistic 15 year old math genius, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and discovers secret information about his mother.
Customer Reviews:
Thicker than another version.......2005-09-17
Physically, this book is thicker and heavier than another edition of this book which has orange colored cover. With thicker and heavier paper, you'll get better quality paper. :-)
About the story in this book; It is written in the point of view of Christopher, a boy with Asperger's Syndrome--a kind of autism. What is inside this book is really different than those fiction books I've ever read. Don't be surprised with the grammar and vocabulary used in this book as they are so simple and too detail. It is what on Christopher's mind. His left brain is dominant while his right brain, where the emotions are, is not well developed. As a result, he loves math, logic, and everything that is organized and in order. Meanwhile, he doesn't like being touched, can't understand facial expression, and emotionally numb.
It is fun to read this book as it gives you different point of view of this world. After reading this book, you will know how the information around us are being absorbed differently by the mind of an autism boy. You will also know better why they don't like mixing up with people, don't like visiting new places, and sometimes being cruel to ordinary people.
Overall, this is a good book to read on your spare time.
Journey through a mind..........2005-02-20
Right away you notice something different about the book. It is written from the point of view of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome, which is essentially a type of autism. He is amazingly brilliant with math, and likes everything in his life being orderly and as mathematically based as possible. He is constantly coming up with equations to help him understand the world around him. He cannot however understand emotions, does not like being touched, and has little (if any) intuition in many scenarios. (For example, when asked to guess what was in a candy tin, he said candy. It was opened and there was a pencil inside. The tin was then re-closed and he was asked "What would your mother walked in right now, what would she guess is inside the tin?" and he said a pencil.) The best way to describe him is being almost entirely left brained. All logic; no emotion. In a sense, he is entirely objective... no emotions to cloud the thought.
As I continued my journey, I got pulled out of my world and into his. If you've ever wanted to get inside someone's heads and know their thoughts, know how they perceive the world around them, what upsets them, how they react to things, how they deal with stress, how they feel about others... really get inside the brain... well, this book is for you! You are totally immersed in this brilliant child's mind. Suddenly you become fully aware of this entirely different way of viewing the world, a different way of processing information and facts. It seemed like I gained a whole new understanding of the world about me by reading the book. (A truly special journey for those who are very right-brained, especially!)
I get lost in thought sometimes, wondering about our brains and how so much is unused and how great it would be to utilize those portions... or I think how great it would be if my memory was able to remember everything... but then I think that would be too much, too difficult... there is perhaps a defense mechanism within most brains that allows us to only see what we need or want to see, so we don't become totally over stimulated and shut down.
Christopher, the autistic narrator, seems to have proved my theory correct. He sees and remembers everything. He can't just glance down a street and think, "here is a tree lined street with several three flats" he takes it all in. Every last detail is forever stored in his brain. How many trees, how tall, which kind, their exact location, what flowers are around them, how many cars, what colour they are, what stickers they have on them, the type, where street lights are placed, etc etc etc ad nausem. He won't forget any of it. He can say on which day at which time he was where, and what the exact looks of everything was. For this reason he has an immense distaste for new places. They are too overwhelming, his brain taking every detail in. Imagine trying to go to a mall when your brain is taking in every detail in camera-like precision. How many people there are, what they are wearing, where they are located, where they are moving, what they are doing, and the overall surroundings about you. As Christopher describes it, it is like the blue screen of death.
I could go on and on, being in his brain is a truly fascinating trip! However, if I go much further I would take the joy out of reading the book for yourself!
Product Description
A condensed collection of four novel
Customer Reviews:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the night time.......2006-09-04
I was given a list of books to read over the summer. We only had to pick one from the list and this is the one I chose. I went to the library and showded the librarian the list, this is the first one she selected. So i checked it out and i started reading it. I read the back and saw it was about a boy with autism. While reading the book i felt like i was inside Christophers head. It showed his thought process his fears and his happiness. Each chapter has it's own personality too. He draws pictures of how he feels and what he is doing. Christopher loves math so instead of putting the chapters in sequential order (1..2..3.ect) he makes them prime numbers! (2..3..5..7..11) The Story begings when Christopher is blamed for the murder of the neighbords dog. He feels bad about the dogs death and decideds he wants to be a dictective and find the real murderer. By doing this Christopher ventures outside of his comfort zone; he talks to strange people gets on a train and doesn't have a planed schedule. Christoper has always had a truthful relationship with his father, his mother died in a car crash.
Soon Christopher learns that this is not true. He sets off to find his mom and the truth about who killed the dog. The end of the story is shocking but it keeps you wanting more. To find out what adventures Christopher takes read this book! It's worth it! :)
Books:
- The Da Vinci Code
- The Disney Princess Little Golden Book Library (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White)
- The Element Encyclopedia of 5000 Spells: The Ultimate Reference Book for the Magical Arts
- The Giving Tree
- The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 8)
- The Good Neighbor: A novel
- The Historian
- The History of Love: A Novel
- The Hunt Club
- The Jungle is Neutral: A Soldier's Two-Year Escape from the Japanese Army
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