It's a "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time"

Back in 2004, several reader friends encouraged me to read British novelist, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, which marked Mr. Haddon's first foray into the young adult/adult genre. Up until this novel, he had written only children's books.  While planning my Freshmen Honors unit plans, I made the decision to teach this novel to them because of the very unique protagonist featured in the novel.  But as I hadn't read it since 2004, I needed to spend some time re-reading the novel in the hopes that I was correct about my initial assumption of this book.

Synopsis: "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. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher has Asperger's syndrome. 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." Set in and around the town of Swindon, England, Christopher decides to investigate the death of the dog, but is often helped by and occasionally hampered by his specific learning disability.

Review: It has been nearly 10 years since my initial read of this wonderful book and it's just as fantastic.  Mark Haddon has written a most unique and fascinating character in Christopher. Written in the first person point of view, the novel allows the reader to delve into the mind of someone who has a high functioning, but incredibly disabling brain. Warm, funny, sad, moving, witty and brilliant are just a few words off the top of my head to describe this novel. This novel is just a delight and so far my students are enjoying it immensely.

The best way to describe this novel is from the author himself: "In July 2009, Haddon wrote on his blog that 'Curious Incident is not a book about Asperger’s....if anything it’s a novel about difference, about being an outsider, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book is not specifically about any specific disorder,' and that he is not an expert on autism spectrum disorder or Asperger syndrome." (Wikipedia) As someone who grew up being an outsider (even still), I appreciate the efforts that Mr. Haddon went through to describe in great detail what it's like to be an outsider.

I highly recommend this book for any adult and young adult reader. 

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars