The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Christopher Boone, a 15 year old who has Asperger's Syndrome which is a condition similar to autism. He was a whiz at solving math problems and loved solving puzzles. For him, there was always an answer to every numeric problems unlike with real life problems. He had several personality problems like he doesn't want to be touched or even hugged. So his parents would just stretch out one...more

Christopher Boone, a 15 year old who has Asperger's Syndrome which is a condition similar to autism. He was a whiz at solving math problems and loved solving puzzles. For him, there was always an answer to every numeric problems unlike with real life problems. He had several personality problems like he doesn't want to be touched or even hugged. So his parents would just stretch out one hand and fingers as if to make a high five but it meant that his dad or mom loved him and he would extend his hand with fingers touching them to mean that he loves them too. He doesn't like the color brown or yellow for many reasons such as yellow meant custard, 2 yellow lines, 4 yellow cars meant a black day. He didn't want food touching one another in a plate or else he'd not eat them. He was a very observant boy and that he can remember a scene or a past with all the tiny details. He lived with his dad. Christopher visited Welington, a poodle from a neighbor's house. And he found the dog dead and had a gardener's fork stabbed on it. And so when he removed it, blood flowed and the neighbor shocked thought Christopher killed the dog and was sent to jail. Proved innocent, he went home with his father and thus his quest to find who killed the dog. He loved mysteries like Sherlock Holmes. Christopher even decided to write a book about his investigation to solve who killed the dog. His dad also had mentioned that his mom died...heart problem. Later on in the story, Christopher finds out that his dad was the one who killed the dog and that his mom was alive and wrote letters which his dad kept. He traveled on his own to find his mother who lived at 451-C Chapter Rd. London NW25NG. He finally did but he wanted to go back to his father's house but not to see him but bec. he was scheduled to take the A Level math test. And so he did and he passed. And soon he'd take the Physics exam bec. he wanted to go to a university just like the others. It's a good read but it made my head hurt when he was lost and in order for him to relax he had to focus on solving equations in his head and how he needed to find a system or order in things to make him feel relaxed and that he thinks too much and absorbs too much input that he sometimes has a headache. But in the end it's the realization that he can make things possible despite his situation, he was able to solve who killed the dog, he finished writing a book, he was able to get to London on his own and he passed the A Level Math exam.   hide

Christopher Boone is a troubled young man. He has Asperger's Syndrome, which means he has no idea how to interact naturally with other people. He can't understand the intricacies of human behavior, even though he can count cubes in his head and has a perfect memory for any form of information. Christopher is obsessed with color and food, and has set rigid patterns for his life that are...more

Christopher Boone is a troubled young man. He has Asperger's Syndrome, which means he has no idea how to interact naturally with other people. He can't understand the intricacies of human behavior, even though he can count cubes in his head and has a perfect memory for any form of information. Christopher is obsessed with color and food, and has set rigid patterns for his life that are understandable only to himself. He lives with his father, who is just about able to handle the task of raising a developmentally disabled son, and attends a special school to try and learn to live in a world that scares and confuses him. And now he has a mystery to solve. His neighbor's dog has been murdered - stabbed with a pitchfork - and he's determined to find out who did it. He plans to use his reason and his logic to uncover the murderer. Unfortunately, by investigating the death of the dog, he uncovers darker, more disturbing mysteries emerge. Unraveling them will push him beyond the boundaries of his world.... It's a fascinating book, written from his perspective. All the chapters are numbered as primes, and he goes on interesting tangents on cosmology, number theory and population control, all the while narrating his attempts to make sense of what's happening around him. It's a quick, fun read - have fun.   hide

Told from the point of view of Christopher, a teenage boy with autism, this book does an amazing job of showing how another's mind works. On one of his nightly walks, Christopher discovers the neighbors dog has been killed by a garden fork. At the encouragement of one of his teachers he is writing a book, and decides to make it a mystery book and try to find out who killed the dog. He also...more

Told from the point of view of Christopher, a teenage boy with autism, this book does an amazing job of showing how another's mind works. On one of his nightly walks, Christopher discovers the neighbors dog has been killed by a garden fork. At the encouragement of one of his teachers he is writing a book, and decides to make it a mystery book and try to find out who killed the dog. He also discovers, and solves, other mysteries in his family as the past suddenly isn't as clear as he thought it was. It was interesting noticing my own thoughts as I read the book, about Christopher, and about myself. About Christopher: that kid has a bright future ahead of him. He's great at math. He's going to be great at physics. Sure he might not accomplish what the rest of us might, but he won't know what he's missing. He has copping skills that he is improving with. For him, trust equals love. If he can trust someone, it is the same as me saying I love someone. But being lied to is the ultimate betrayal for him, and means the person who lied doesn't love him. It's so interesting how my mind will start to follow the pattern of the book. My thoughts start to come just like the phrasing in the book when I read for any length of time. The longer I read in one sitting, the longer it takes to wear off. I noticed this when I read Skellig as well, which was written in an almost poetic form - very beautiful. The book did a great job of letting us inside Christopher's head, but I don't like having to jump over that many swear words in my head, hence the rating.   hide

Christopher Boone likes night-time walks. On one of these walks, he discovers the body of his neighbor's dog pierced by a pitchfork. The death of the animal awakens Christopher's desire to investigate and solve the dog's hideous murder. Christopher's detective work drums up some interesting leads, not only about the dog, but also about some mysteries in...more

Christopher Boone likes night-time walks. On one of these walks, he discovers the body of his neighbor's dog pierced by a pitchfork. The death of the animal awakens Christopher's desire to investigate and solve the dog's hideous murder. Christopher's detective work drums up some interesting leads, not only about the dog, but also about some mysteries in Christopher's own life. In the end, Christopher will have to choose between the family he knows and his need for knowing the truth about the incident of the dog in the night-time. Mark Haddon's portrait of an autistic boy on a mission is well written, and perfectly told. The story, composed as a first-person narrative, expertly portrays the actions and mind set of a person living with autism. Haddon's complex storytelling may confuse some readers, but it is essential to building the foundation of Christopher's character. It helps the reader to understand the thought patterns autistic people. Haddon does a wonderful job weaving the chapters to create a compelling and surprising read. - 4 Stars - Reviewed by Leigh O'Donovan, Authors on the Rise Book Reviews   hide

Very good. The portrayal of a teenager with Asperger's fitted with my limited experience of communications with people with various levels of autism, and hopefully will help me communicate better in future. Plus the young man, Christoper, likes Sherlock Holmes and doesn't like yellow or brown, so I immediately developed a rapport! (My dislike of yellow and brown doesn't extend to...more

Very good. The portrayal of a teenager with Asperger's fitted with my limited experience of communications with people with various levels of autism, and hopefully will help me communicate better in future. Plus the young man, Christoper, likes Sherlock Holmes and doesn't like yellow or brown, so I immediately developed a rapport! (My dislike of yellow and brown doesn't extend to food, but I did wonder why Christopher took the custard creams). As for the story itself, the murder wasn't much of a mystery if you don't have Asperger's - so although it's a mystery to Christopher, for those of us reading the story, the mystery is the workings of Christopher's mind. But everyone's mind is a mystery, our own included. Christopher's insight into the working of his mind is uncluttered and real, and made the story interesting to me from a Yogic and Zen Buddhist perspective too, which both seek to understand the mystery of mind. Some of the techniques he uses to calm himself down are similar to yogic techniques for calming (holding his ears and groaning, for example, is similar to Brahmari Pranayama and the star watching has the effect of Unmani Mudra). There may be much more we can learn from people who have had to devise techniques for reducing the impact of too much incoming data. I wonder if yoga techniques are taught in special schools? The concept of non-dualism is also a major element of yoga (in the tradition of Shankaracharya), as it is in Zen Buddhism. Although both Yoga and Buddhism have this non-dual philosophy, the conclusions are very different indeed. From a Buddhist perspective, I have recently been grappling with the concept of no permanent self, and the idea that there is no permanent soul or spirit. On a recent meditation retreat at Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, the Reverand Master leading the retreat referred frequently to 'The Ghost in the Machine' (Gilbert Ryle's description of Descarte's mind-body dualism). In chapter 163, Christopher gives a perfect description of how we come to think there is a ghost in our machine, "And when we look at things we think we're just looking out of our eyes like we're looking out of little windows and there's a person inside our head, but we're not. We're looking at a screen inside our heads, like a computer screen", and he goes on to describe how it is that we can use the mind to look at itself. This is the most succinct and elegant description of the position that there is no ghost in the machine that I have come across. In yoga, there is a state of being known as the 'Witness State' which is what Christopher appears to be describing, but his conclusion is closer to Zen Buddhism than to Yoga. Here is a description of the Witness State from a yoga website, http://www.kundalini-teacher.com/chakras/witness.php : "Q: Can you give me an explanation of the witness state? "Kaliji: The witness state is a term for witnessing the play of the mind. Ultimately, one witnesses the mind to such depth that the witness is realized as the soul. First, the mind witnesses the body; then the higher mind (according to yoga terms, the Buddhi), witnesses the lower mind. "Often the higher mind is thought of as the witness state. But to be aware of witnessing the mind there is a witness witnessing that. That is the Soul, the ultimate Witness in this Dual Consciousness. Witnessing the highest duality is the Non Dual State . . . Pure Consciousness ~ the Eternal Witness". Here is Christopher's description: "Because people can see the screen inside their head and they think there is someone in their head sitting there looking at the screen, like Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation', sitting in his captain's seat looking at the big screen. And they think that this person is their special human mind which is called a ~homunculus~, which means ~little man~. And they think that computers don't have this homunculus. "But this homunculus is just another picture on the screen in their heads. And when the homunculus is on the screen in their heads(because the person is thinking about the homunculus) there is another bit of brain watching the screen. And when the person thinks about this part of the brain (the bit that is watching the homunculus on the screen) they put this bit of the brain on the screen and there is another bit of the brain watching the screen. But the brain doesn't see this happening because it is like the eye flicking from one place to another* and people are blind inside their heads when they do the changing from thinking about one thing to thinking about another". *Christopher has previously described this phenomenon, called 'saccades' P.S.If Christopher's mum is a secretary, why is her spelling so poor   hide

I'm sure this is a children's book, but I find it hard to believe. Maybe it's because it's told from the perspective of a child, but certainly no child that I know. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time is a detective novel, told from the point of view of a fifteen year old child suffering from Aspergers syndrome, a form of autism. The description of what goes on in his head is...more

I'm sure this is a children's book, but I find it hard to believe. Maybe it's because it's told from the perspective of a child, but certainly no child that I know. The curious incident of the dog in the night-time is a detective novel, told from the point of view of a fifteen year old child suffering from Aspergers syndrome, a form of autism. The description of what goes on in his head is strangely fascinating, alien, scary and frustrating all in one. Fascinating: The child's whole thought process, his innocent, logical view of the world where if it isn't a shade of black and white then he refuses to acknowledge it Alien: His approach to things, to situations, to crowds, to strangers, to conversation Scary: How his fear translates into others immediate danger. The way he describes holding on to his swiss army knife when he's troubled makes you fear what he might do Frustrating: I just want to shake this kid and explain the world to him. But I can't. Because my world and his world are completely different and there's nothing anyone can do about it I really enjoyed this book and it's certainly opened my eyes somewhat to the effects of living with autism. People who look after autistic kids certainly have a good degree of sympathy from me.   hide

This was a very fast read and I really enjoyed it. This is a story about a 15 year old autistic boy who finds his neighbors dog dead in the middle of this night. He takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of who killed the dog and ends up solving a much bigger unanticipated mystery in addition. This is a heart warming story of the challenges austic people face and a rare insight into their...more

This was a very fast read and I really enjoyed it. This is a story about a 15 year old autistic boy who finds his neighbors dog dead in the middle of this night. He takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of who killed the dog and ends up solving a much bigger unanticipated mystery in addition. This is a heart warming story of the challenges austic people face and a rare insight into their world and way of thinking. What may seem totally irrational to the naked eye is likely in fact very logical to them. The language is so basic and thoroughly explained that in the beginning I thought I should be reading this with my 10 year old daughter. There are many complicated things that are explained so clearly and thoroughly, that I thought it might be a good book for her. However, as the story progressed, some of the topics got a lot more mature and I began to rethink that idea - maybe in a few years. There were many parts where I found myself chuckling at the way he looks at things. Most adults are so adept at putting spin on things, and so concerned about being politically correct and/or funny, that they don't even think about the things they say. To have someone take the ordinary things we say and make you look at them differently was a very charming side-effect of this story. I recommend this book for anyone over 15 simply for the fact that it's a quick and easy read that will have the wonderful affect of helping you see into the often hard to understand world of an autistic person and possibly be a little more compassionate when you interact with one.   hide

Now we've all heard about autism in some forum or the other but in this novel you get to experience it not as a bystander but as a parent, a neighbor, a police officer, a teacher and Christopher John Francis Boone. This novel gives you insight on the structure of what may seem to be the most menial of everyday thoughts. It opens you up to the world of autism when you go on this journey to...more

Now we've all heard about autism in some forum or the other but in this novel you get to experience it not as a bystander but as a parent, a neighbor, a police officer, a teacher and Christopher John Francis Boone. This novel gives you insight on the structure of what may seem to be the most menial of everyday thoughts. It opens you up to the world of autism when you go on this journey to discover who murdered a neighborhood dog, a dog that Christopher Boone who suffers from autism is fond of as he is fond of dogs in general and pets because they're safe and trustworthy. Unlike people whom are touchy, chatty and set out to confuse you with too many facial expressions. He's a courageous young man with the inability to lie and social norms are to complex for him to fully grasp. Throughout his detecting he unlocks some secrets that would change the course of many "normal" people in life but Christopher's logical mind doesn't allow these things to deter him on the path to solve these mysteries and always remains objective. Excellent insight into the astounding mind of an autistic child.   hide

“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” has one of the most unique voices of any book I've ever read. Mark Haddon tells the story of a 16-yr-old autistic boy through his voice. He lives with his father in a suburb of London and he tends to go wandering in the middle of the night. One night while wandering he finds his neighbor's dead dog on her lawn. He...more

“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” has one of the most unique voices of any book I've ever read. Mark Haddon tells the story of a 16-yr-old autistic boy through his voice. He lives with his father in a suburb of London and he tends to go wandering in the middle of the night. One night while wandering he finds his neighbor's dead dog on her lawn. He decides that he should investigate the dog's death and write a book about said investigation. This is that book. At times it's a little difficult to get through it. It gets somewhat dry, but that's the point. The boy, Christopher, goes off on strange tangents. But it's important to read it all because it colors the way of the boy's thinking for the reader. It's quite an interesting way to experience a story...through the eyes of an autistic boy. There's not a whole lot more to share without giving away specific plot points and I don't want to do that. The novel is short and more or less quick reading. I definitely think if you're a fan of a unique perspective this is a good book to check out. I really liked it. I won't go so far as to say it's great, but it was certainly really good.   hide