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