The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Haddon, Mark (2004). The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. New York: Vintage Contemporaries (Random House, Inc.).

Christopher is a 15-year-old who loves Sherlock Holmes and is determined to solve the murder mystery of Wellington. He is determined that his Autism will not prevent him from solving his mystery.

Whitbread Book of the Year (2003)

Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (2004)

Joint winner of the Boeke Prize (2004)

“These are some of my Behavioral Problems

1. Not talking to people for a long time
2. Not eating or drinking anything for a long time
3. Not liking being touched
4. Screaming when I am angry or confused
5. Not liking being in really small places with other people
6. Smashing things when I am angry or confused
7. Groaning
8. Not liking yellow things or brown things and refusing to touch yellow things and brown things
9. Refusing to use my toothbrush if anyone else has touched it
10. Not eating food if different sorts of food are touching each other
11. Not noticing that people are angry with me
12. Not smiling
13. Saying things that other people think are rude
14. Doing stupid things
15. Hitting other people
16. Hating France
17. Driving Mother’s car
18. Getting cross when someone has moved the furniture” (Haddon, pg. 46-47)

But I am still determined to solve the mystery of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

This was such an interesting book. Even though it went of on tangents every once in a while, those tangents did fit in with the flow of the book. It is told from the perspective of Christopher, a 15-year old boy with high-functioning Autism. It was a neat glimpse into his life and how he deals with all of the people that surround him. It was thought provoking and revealed a lot about how an Autistic child / teenager views the world and his interactions with those who wonder why he sits in a corner with his ears covered or freaks out when someone touches him.