Book Review: The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
by TeachThought Staff
Summary
“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. And he detests the color yellow. This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.”
Title: The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time (affiliate) by Mark Haddon
Publisher Description
“The fifteen-year-old narrator of this ostensible murder mystery is even more emotionally remote than the typical crime-fiction shamus: he is autistic, prone to fall silent for weeks at a time and unable to imagine the interior lives of others. This might seem a serious handicap for a detective, but when Christopher stumbles on the dead body of his neighbor’s poodle, impaled by a pitchfork, he decides to investigate. Christopher understands dogs, whose moods are as circumscribed as his own (“happy, sad, cross and concentrating”), but he’s deaf to the nuances of people, and doesn’t realize until too late that the clues point toward his own house and a more devastating mystery. This original and affecting novel is a triumph of empathy; whether describing Christopher’s favorite dream (of a virus depopulating the planet) or his vision of the universe collapsing in a thunder of stars, the author makes his hero’s severely limited world a thrilling place to be.”
Other Works By The Author: A Spot of Bother, The Pier Falls, The Red House, boom, The Sea of Tranquility
Recommended Reading Level: 6-12+
Publisher: Vintage Contemporaries; 1st edition (May 18, 2004)
Price: $8.77-$24.99 depending on format (see below)
Formats: Paperback, Hard Cover, Audiobook, Kindle, Audio CD, iBooks
Recommended Learning Models & Strategies: Literature Circles, Class Read, Direct Instruction, Project-Based Learning, Empathy-Based Learning
Other Related Notes
Book: The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time