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

First impressions

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a very interesting book, with a very odd point of view. The point of view is from a 15-year-old boy , Christopher Boone , who has multiple symptoms of autism which gives an edge to the story because he cannot understand jokes etc. which lead to some funny situations and conversations. The fact that Christopher is different and his point of view made me enjoy reading this novel, but I don’t think I will read a crossover book again.

Insights after discussing the book in class

In class we spoke about the routines and aversion of certain colours. The book makes it look like only autistic children have them, but everybody has some sort of routine. Football players walk onto the field with their right field because they think it’ll help them during the match,  and ‘normal’ children dislike vegetables because they’re green etc.  Many people, either young or old, have certain routines to tell them it’s going to be a good day. Only because Christopher has autism his routines seem to be weird, but as a group we thought this wasn’t  exactly the case, at least not all of them.  

We also talked about the fact that Christopher doesn’t understand everything that’s going on. One situation we talked about is his father’s relationship with their neighbour. We as reader can understand why his neighbour comes to their house to cook dinner, Christopher can’t.

Relating the theory to the book

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a crossover book, which is different from other books we’ve read during the Youth literature course. Young children will probably like this book because the main character is totally different than they are. According to Donald Maass, this is a way to create a character they won’t forget easily.(reader, p.21)

In the story, Christopher tries to solve the mystery of the killed dog. "what happens to the characters in the course of the story is unusual, dramatic, and meaningful.” ( Reader, p. 21). Eventually, Christopher solves the mystery, but the outcome is quite dramatic because his own father killed the dog. Besides , the mystery is also meaningful and unusual because it influences the rest of the story.

Teenagers and other older readers will like the story for different reasons. The story has a deeper meaning which older reader can understand while the young children just read it without thinking about that. Furthermore, Christopher is not the ideal character. This reflects the reader’s experience because we all make mistakes.( Appelyard)

Age suitability

It’s hard to tell which age group this book fits the best, because they interpreter the book different. Young children will like the story for other reasons than a 16-year-old teenager. I would say that the deeper meaning of the story is a major element in the book, so that’s why it suits the older reader more.  Nevertheless, children can read the book as well, because the mystery(and the adventure to solve it) would appeal to them.

Words: 511

Sources:

Reader p. 21

Appelyard, The reader as Thinker

Appelyard, the reader as hero or heroine

Percy Jackson and the Olympians – the Lighting Thief by Rick Riordan

First impressions

When Xander told me Percy Jackson and the Olympians – the Lighting Thief is a book you should read, my expectations were quite high. He said it was a about the Greek Gods and I was interested immediately. I used to study Greek in my second year of secondary school, so I knew some things about the myths and demigods of the Greek culture. 

I’m glad Xander told me about this book because I enjoyed reading it. It was interesting, full of action and readable as well. The book made me interested in the other novels about Percy Jackson and his adventures.

Insights after discussing the book in class

In class we focussed on the elements of a quest. In Fantasy books the characters go on quests all the time, this book is no exception. The first element of a quest is the call. In the group we all had different thoughts about when the actual call happened. Some thought it was when Percy’s mom drove him to Half-blood Camp, some thought the call right after Percy’s fight with the Minotaur(which was my guess as well). I looked it up in the book, and the actual call for the quest was neither of the two. Chapter  7 is called ‘I am offered a quest’ . In that chapter Dionysus and Chiron tell him about the theft of the lightning bolt. In conclusion we can say that this is a bit ambiguous.  In the powerpoint of this week’s class on the Sharepointsite, we can find the following: “An event, sometimes traumatic, leads to adventure or quest”. The dead of Percy’s mother could be the begin of the quest.

The rest of the story is not that hard to figure out. The journey is about retrieving the lightning bolt. During the journey he faces multiple obstacles, all of them are enemies who want Percy to bring the bolt to Hades instead of Zeus.  His first obstacle, or enemy, is his teacher, Mrs. Dodds. “She wasn’t human. She was a shrivelled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.” (Riordan, 2005)

The Final ordeal is fight with Hades in the Underworld. That’s when Percy retrieved the lightning bolt to bring it back to Zeus.

Relating the Theory to the Book

This book has multiple features related to the theory in the given sources.  First of all, this story has an amazing plot which children will enjoy reading. According to Maass, in great novels "what happens to the characters in the course of the story is unusual, dramatic, and meaningful. A great story involves great events." The events are clearly unusual and dramatic. Percy himself cannot even imagine the Greek Gods are real. "But they're stories," I said. "They're myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science." (Riordan, 2005, p. 73)

Percy has not experienced anything like this, so this is a very natural thought of him.

In Percy Jackson and the Olympians – the Lighting Thief, the reader is not only a spectator, but an participant as well. “It involves a total immersion in the experience, so that the distinction between the subject and the object of the experience breaks down.” (Appelyard, unknown, p. 101). The setting is odd which makes it interesting for adolescents. Also, Percy is the average Joe, so a lot of children will identify themselves with him. It’s like the reader is walking beside the characters who think out loud.

Age suitability

In my opinion this book is suitable for 14-18 year olds. The book has some characters who pretend they’re good, but at the end, are not. A 9-year-old kid would be devastated about this . For them, a character should be either bad or good, not both. (Appelyard, The reader as hero or heroine, Unknown). Also, the storyline would probably be too difficult to follow for the younger readers. They read a couple of events instead of the adolescents who read is a logical story.

681 words.

is a book you should read, my expectations were quite high. He said it was a about the Greek Gods and I was interested immediately. I used to study Greek in my second year of secondary school, so I knew some things about the myths and demigods of the Greek culture. 

I’m glad Xander told me about this book because I enjoyed reading it. It was interesting, full of action and readable as well. The book made me interested in the other novels about Percy Jackson and his adventures.

681 words. 

Sources:

Appelyard, The reader as Thinker
Appelyard, The reader as hero or heroine
Riordan, R.,(2005), Percy Jackson and the Olympians - The Lightning Thief