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.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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I’ve been hearing good things about this little book for years, and I’m glad I finally read it. Mark Haddon writes from the perspective of a young man with Asperger’s who is fascinated by physics and mystery stories and the color red and who is dealing with a complicated home life. The story is quick and compelling, and Christopher’s voice is lovely and off-beat and well-developed. From what I understand, the author has little to no experience with Asperger’s, either personal or otherwise, so I’d be curious as to how his representation of Christopher resonates with that community. I’ve had The Reason I Jump on my TBR for a while and it seems like it might be time to pick that up next!
I had no clue The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was even on Broadway! This is an ADORABLE story about what happens to these pups once they get too big to perform: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/05/theater/for-the-scene-stealers-of-the-curious-incident-a-happy-second-act-in-dog-years.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
I recently was checking out challenged/banned books because of it being banned book week and found that there had been concerns expressed about this book. I though this book was insightful and I’m not sure if Mark Haddon has any problems with being on the Autism spectrum, but this book does a great job of taking you into the mind of a young man with Asperger’s. I work in mental health and this book allows you to see things from the perspective of this teenager and makes you stop and think about how our minds may work differently. I’ve actually recommended this book to a few parents of kids on the spectrum to help them walk a mile in the shoes and mind of someone with ASD. It isn’t a clinical book at all and hopefully it increases empathy when trying to understand kids with ASD. Highly recommend it!
Even if this wasn’t a very good book, which it is, it would be worth reading simply for the point of view.
I read this book in one sitting. It is unusual, funny, challenging and allows us in to see an autistic world. Oh so many words can describe it and yet they can’t. Utterly brilliant might be two words that do.
I was surprised by this book. I was expecting something totally different, but I loved this story.
I loved this book. It was smartly written, and really gave you an idea of what it would be like inside the mind of a person who is autistic. At one point Christopher says “this book will not be funny. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them”. I have cared for several higher functioning kids over my nursing career, and this has been true for all of them that I know. These kids didn’t get jokes. And they didn’t understand sayings like “that is water under the bridge”. Those kids had me thinking on how to communicate to them so they would understand and be comfortable.
The autism world is complex. There is side a spectrum that I would never begin to believe that you could lump all autistic people into a certain set of characteristics. But this book did a great job in showing what it was like for Christopher – a person with autism. And the play was fantastic.
And it was totally different to anything I have ever read. That is in a good way, it was brilliant like I was a bit confused with how it started but then it was explained and I loved it. The book was amazing and I mean it wasn’t something that again I would normally read. I haven’t read many books where a character has some specific learning difficulties and although they aren’t mentioned by the main character in the book. You can tell which type he has if you know about that stuff.
The story focuses around a 15-year-old boy he describes himself as a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties, and no one is really told what he has. The chapters are not labelled normally like chapter one, two, three and so on. The chapters are prime numbers, and in the book Christopher does a little explanation of the prime numbers and there is even some diagrams on how to know a prime number and find a prime number.
Throughout the books there is little diagrams and in my opinion that really does just add to the story and make it easier to know what is going off in Christopher’s situation. So I think they really just add to the book. I soon fell in love with Christopher’s character he is up there as one of my all time favourites. The way he does things and the fact he was so determined to find out about who killed the neighbours dog. I love it.
Though I should probably tell you what it is about first, the plot focuses on Christopher trying to discover who killed Mrs Shears’ dog. He begins asking around his neighbourhood trying to discover who did it and along the way he discovers some of the lies he has been told. When Ed (Christopher’s dad) took his notebook away he hid it from Christopher, so when he goes and looks for it. Christopher discovers something else, the fact his mother isn’t really dead. His mum had an affair with Mr Shears and they left to be with each other. Ed began to lie Christopher because he didn’t want to have to explain to Christopher it all and the lies got easier. I won’t tell you who killed the dog, because then there is no point of you reading it really is there? So I will not that slip. But from that brief description you can tell the book was going to be interesting.
I didn’t really look at the description of the back of the book as I picked this up, just because my friend wanted me to read it. So I didn’t bother reading it, you know lazy me. The plot although simple was also very complex and it was brilliant. I really did love it and the way it built up throughout the book, the author did an amazing job. Which just proves with the awards he won with this book and it was made for adults and children which was unusual so it has separate editions. Which for anyone is pretty much an achievement and it has won around 3 different awards since it’s publication.
I simple love this book! Strongly recommend.
It offers a peek into a way of looking at the world there is very different from what most of us consider to be normal. The book grab me from the very first page. In fact, I began reading it in the bookstore as my friends were shopping. I was so engrossed that they left without me. Fortunately, I was able to catch up. But I don’t remember much of my vacation until I finish the book. It was that good.
Highly original, unexpectedly funny and insightful.
Loved the beginning of the story, hated the late middle, loved the ending. It is very educational about the autistic individual.
One of my all-time favorites! I feel I have better understanding of what happens inside the mind of individuals living with Autism.
My son is on the Autism spectrum and reading this book is like being inside the mind of a boy with Autism.
A most unique, insightful book written from the point of view of an autistic boy. My favorite book to give as a gift to friends and family who enjoy to read.
I wasn’t a fan of the writing. The characters were detached, uninteresting, underdeveloped, and unbelievable.
However, the thing that really got me was the fact that this was marketed as a contemporary mystery. Though this did have some elements of a mystery, it was NOT the focus of the story. The so-called “mystery” was solved halfway through the book, so the first part was really of no consequence. It mostly focused on Christopher’s home life and the half-baked dynamics of him and his infuriating parents.
Very good story about an individual who looks at the world differently than most people do.
I love the main character and the feeling thise book gave me after i read it. It was so cool, i even dedicated a song to it. I read this book 3 times and i love researching things about the author. It is very interesting on how much of an impact this book left on me. Ad i hope if someone else reads this, they’ll get the same impact as it had on me.
creative turn on narrator’s teenage autistic mind
very entertaining; highly recommended to many friends, family and educators
As fascinating and well-constructed as “ROOM”.