There is a special magic reading the first chapters of Christopher's account with a group of teenagers.

Usually, they are indifferent to start with, just another book that will end up an essay or another assignment. They are tired, and in their teenage grandiosity, they think they know everything about how "books work". And then they frown.

Teenage pedants kicks in.

"That's not chapter 7!"

"He got all the numbers wrong!"

"What a stupid book!"

Once that discussion starts, the teacher pedant has to restrain herself not to give the answer, not to lecture the students on what they are "supposed" to discover in the patterns. They will like it so much more if they find out how Christopher functions on their own, without the meddling of a typical adult teacher mind.

Once they do find out they are usually engaging in the story on a deeper level: it reads like a mystery that works on two levels - one being the mystery Christopher tries to solve himself, and the other being cracking the code to communicating with Christopher on his terms.

This is young adult fiction that really fulfils its purpose of engaging adolescents in topics that they can relate to, while also offering enough tension and suspense to keep them on the edge, turning pages.

The message (especially to students who suffer from lacking belief in themselves and in the future) is a perfect closing statement: if Christopher can be brave and solve a mystery and go to London and write a book and find his mother, he can do anything - and so can YOU!

Why I chose to read this book:
1. a few years ago, I've read several positive reviews about this story, so I added it to my WTR list. Imagine my thrill upon finding a copy in a thrift shop! and,
2. August 2022 is my "As the Spirit Moves Me Month".

Praises:
1. author Mark Haddon's experience working with autistic individuals clearly shines in this story! From the first paragraph, I was drawn in by 15-year-old Christopher's life with ASD through Haddon's captivating writing style - I didn't want to put this book down! From the precision in the dialogue to Christopher's astute thought processes, I developed immense empathy for this protagonist;
2. the character development was executed very well! Even if some characters made dubious choices, they were believable. And because of this, the ending couldn't have worked out better than it did. It was also nice to see that Christopher had a reliable support system with EA Siobhan; and,
3. my emotions ran the gamut from laughter to heartbreak!

Niggle:
Christopher used some mathematical and/or scientific thought processes to work out various personal issues. I tried to follow along or, at least I tried to relate to it in this story, but, unfortunately, my poor little fishy brain wasn't on the same wavelength as Christopher's!

Overall Thoughts:
Over the years, I have taught students on the Spectrum, so it was lovely to see bits and pieces of them in Christopher's character. This story was such an eye-opening look into the world of ASD!

Recommendation?
A quick but enlightening read of how one person, along with his family and acquaintances, live with ASD. Check it out!

Is this a book that's impossible to dislike?

I, as a person who has Asperger's syndrome, found this book very very insulting. Some things certainly did NOT help me put my diagnosis into perspective at all. No person with aspergers would admit to having a special food box and no person I've ever met with aspergers has gone to a special school or been so irrational to go on the colours of the cars they pass on the way to school.
It is very inaccurate that Christopher's mum left, normally its dad who refuses to even try and cope with an autistic child.
I also found that it is a very typical book of the understanding of a professional- they have their facts about aspergers but they don't actually experience it! Good grief by the time we are fifteen we have all learned against the strange things he does- he is a very odd character and not true to life in the slightest.
A child with aspergers would be too clever to believe their mum died! I found out my sister was my half-sister all on my own without any of my family even noticing.
It is a very bad book and proves that writing about aspergers should be left to the real experts- those with it!

The Prime Reasons Why I Enjoyed Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time:

2. Death broken down into its molecular importance.

3. Clouds, with chimneys and aerials impressed upon them, and their potential as alien space crafts.

5. Black Days and Yellow cars.

7. Red food coloring for Indian cuisine.

11. Christopher's reasons for loving The Hound of the Baskervilles and disdaining Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

13. White lies.

17. The patience of Siobhan

19. Father’s frustration, and Father's love.

23. “I reasoned that....”

29. Metaphors are lies and similes are not.

31. The intimacy of fanning out the fingers and pressing the hand of another.

37. Christopher punches a policeman and later decides he doesn't like policeman much after all.

41. My empathy for Father's pain.

43. Mystification through demystification.

47. Father admitting one of his “crimes” before he was caught.

53. Did I mention Christopher?

59. A Level Maths.

61. The London Underground as a scary, thrilling adventure.

67. Toby the rat.

71. Wellington forked.

73. The book has yet to be discovered by Oprah.

79. Behavioral Problems

83. Maps

89. Prime numbers = Prime chapters

97. That every day life, if seen from a certain perspective, can provide the conflict for a compelling novel.

Such a terrible and overhyped book - please, if you want to write a book that is meant to make people feel sympathy (if not empathy) for the main characters, don't make him a sociopathic spoilt brat who ruins everyone's lives without feeling sympathy. Yes, he's meant to be autistic, but Haddon didn't bother researching autism at all so that point is moot. I can't describe how much I wanted this little shit to be ran over by a train when he went to fetch his pet rat (which had made an entirely understandable decision and ran away from Chrissy), but alas, he wasn't and he went on to ruin someone else life.

I can deal with a character that is evil (in the sense that they hurt others), but they have to have some charm or they just come out as one dimensional douchebags. There was nothing interesting about Chrissy boy, he just commented about how good he was at maths, how much he hated people (even when those people were trying to help him), and how hard his life is even when he is being mollycoddled. Make no mistake, I have nothing against autistic people, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority of autistic people don't think they're God's gift and that everyone else deserves to die; my (admittedly limited) understanding of autism suggests that people suffering from autism have trouble expressing emotion, rather than being devoid of it. Haddon's lack of research seemed to show mainly in the fact that, even though the book is meant to be from the viewpoint of an autistic child, the understanding of autism seemed to be very superficial, as if Haddon had looked at child with autism and said "yep, what they say and act like must be exactly how they think... Better write a book about it."

Understandably, as I wasn't overly fussed on Chrissy boy, I did not enjoy the writing style at all. It was a recount of events in the most obnoxious way, appearing not to have taken any literary skill at all. It is very reminiscent of how I (and most others) used to write when I (or they) was five, you know, saying "and this and then and now and when and and and and" - I was sat there thinking "say 'and' again, I dare you, I double dare you!", and if I had been Jules (I think he was the one played by Mr. jackson), I'd have shot Chrissy boy around seven hundred times, because it seems the only word the author could think to write was 'and'.

If this had been fully a murder mystery, then I may have given this book a two stars (providing it was done well) because a good puzzle can make up for unlikable characters and shoddy writing. But no, the culprit was 'found' (he gave himself in without any tension leading up to the moment) and then the book turns into a family drama. A family drama about a horrible and boring family. Great.

This book lied to me, it should have been called "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and the Less Curious Incident of a Dysfunctional Family".

Another thing that really bugged me was the random God-bashing thing. I'm not a Christian (or religious at all), but it was not needed in the slightest, it was as if Haddon thought he may as well get Dawkins on all our asses. It felt really preachy and forced and it didn't fit in the context of that part of the story, it was just stupid.

The final point I'll make is that this book gives people a false view of autism, and many people who did not know much about the condition before may now think this unresearched drivel is correct.

ولفگانگ آمادئوس موتسارت
با آن که در آن زمان هنوز این اختلال شناخته شده نبود، بعضی با مطالعه ی رفتارهای موتسارت، به این نتیجه رسیده اند که او مبتلا به اوتیسم بوده: قوه ی شنوایی حساس، نیاز به حرکت دادن دائمی دست و پا، و در یک مورد، وقتی حوصله اش سر رفته بوده، پریدن و پشتک زدن روی میز و صندلی ها و در آوردن صدای گربه.

آلبرت آینشتاین
عدم قدرت ارتباط با دیگران، حساسیت به لمس شدن توسط د��گران، اخراج از مدرسه به خاطر مشکلات یادگیری، و انتخاب مکان های دور از دیگران برای مطالعات فیزیکی.

استنلی کوبریک
معروف است که این کارگردان معروف، وسواسی جنون آمیز داشته که همه ی جزئیات بی شمار صحنه های فیلم، دقیقاً همان طور که در ذهن اوست تصویر شوند و به این ترتیب، بارها و بارها، یک صحنه ی جزئی را برداشت می کرده.

تیم برتون
همسر این کارگردان (هلنا بونهام کارتر، بازیگر) وقتی برای یک فیلم، راجع به اوتیسم مطالعات جانبی می کرده، ناگهان متوجه می شود که بیشتر خصوصیات این اختلال، در همسر او نیز موجود است.

افراد دیگری هم جزء این لیست شم��ده شده اند، از نیوتون و ویتگنشتاین، تا داروین و میکل آنژ، و حتی لیونل مسی.
در داستان مصور "تیمارستان آرکام" یکی از پرستارها راجع به جوکر می گوید: ما نمی توانیم با اطمینان او را تحت "دیوانه" طبقه بندی کنیم، شاید او دارای گونه ای "فرا-عقل" باشد، که در اثر تکامل نوع انسانی ایجاد شده باشد.
در این شرایط است که آدم به فکر می رود که آیا اوتیسم حقیقتاً نوعی اختلال است یا نوعی فرا-انسان بودن؟ آیا می توان به صرف این که نابغه ای انعطاف ناپذیر است و نمی تواند با دیگران ارتباط برقرار کند، او را دچار اختلال دانست؟ شاید این ها لوازم نبوغ هستند؟

this book rocked my world, and i've been trying for weeks to understand why. here it is:

* because the plot is flawless

* because the voice is flawless

* because it's amazingly tender without being cute

* because there's a christopher boone in me, and a christopher boone in everyone i love or at least try to get along with

* because the christopher boone in me loves to see itself written about lovingly, like it's the coolest kid, if not on the block (it will never be the coolest kid on the block), at least in the annals of literature

* because the christopher boone in those i love or at least try to get along with is telling me, "be patient; please, be patient; i'm doing the best i can"

* because i understand this plea, since it's a plea i issue myself like 230 times a day

Re-read for my Fall 2017 YAL class.

One of the best YA books ever, wonderful and surprising on so many levels. Very moving. As a parent of a kid with autism and another kid who is spectrum-y, it hits home for me in ways it might not for others. As with many mysteries, it features some misdirection; it appears to be about a kid with Asperger's Syndrome investigating a mystery about a dead dog in the manner of his hero (and also Aspergerish) Sherlock Holmes, but becomes an even richer and ever widening investigation of human tragedy and mystery and the complex nature of love and grief. I find it very moving, having read it several times.

My feeling this time? That almost half of the book is about the London trip when Christopher goes to see his estranged mother, and maybe that's a little too long; it makes the story into a kind of movie thriller of sorts, when the heart of the book for me is about mysteries, a dog murdered and just what that means for Christopher and his family, relationships, love, the grief and despair of dealing with a kid with special needs, that heartbreak, all stuff I have been through. I was divorced in the process of trying to deal with the anguish and despair and grief of discovering my son had autism, at the same time trying to do everything we could to try to reverse the process. So I could empathize with the parents.

One thing that is different in recent readings is that I have watched and rewatched the BBC Sherlock and the American Elementary and I have this as background for a very Sherlock-focused book (it's Christopher's favorite set of stories). I also have been reading Agatha Christie Poirot mysteries, so I have that related background. And, one course I have been teaching focuses on the relationships between psychiatry, the psychic/supernatural, horror/fantasy, spirituality, the literar vs the rational and logical, and some of that figures very much in this book. I had forgotten Christopher talks of faith and ghosts in this book with respect to logic and Reason. There's a consideration of metaphor and story for the purpose of making meaning, since this first person story is told by Christopher for a school project, a story of ever widening mysteries of life. I admit to tears in several places, earned tears from Haddon.

Reading because I’m going to try and loosely base some of my picks on the Great American Reads list!

I reread this book I had first read in 2003 when it was first published. I remembered the premise but not the details and hadn't reviewed it at the time. Recently I saw a news article where it was listed as one of the best novels so far in this 21st century. This was poignant, original, empathetic, funny and alarming.


Christopher is a high functioning autistic boy. All children exhibiting the characteristics of the autistic syndrome are different, but Christopher has many of the traits. He needs to see patterns and requires a sense of order. He has a genius for numbers. He has difficulty understanding the emotions of others.


The book begins with Christopher discovering that a neighbour's dog has been killed. He fancies himself to be like Sherlock Holmes. He will discover who killed the dog and write a book about it. To investigate, he must question neighbours. This requires he must overcome his dread in talking to strangers and venture around the area by himself, knocking on doors. Christopher displays an advanced vocabulary, scientific knowledge, and love of math and puzzles in his journal, but with many digressions from the main topic. Because his rambling thought processes jump from one subject to another, patience is required when reading his journal, and also from his family and teachers when dealing with him.

Christopher lives with his loving father who sometimes becomes exasperated with the boy's tantrums, wilfulness and compulsions. He broke the sad news to Christopher several years ago that his mother had died. Halfway through the book, the young detective discovers the identity of dog's killer and a shocking family secret. The rest of the book deals with the consequences and repercussions of what Christopher had discovered.

This is one of the editorial acquisitions I'm most proud of... I've bought rights for this novel while it was still in manuscript, before first publication and much before all the awards it received later... Also, I had the pleasure of meeting Mark Haddon twice... His a great author and very nice person and has good memory :) Unfortunately, he didn't sell well in Serbia... I changed him a publisher but with no better results...
Due to bad sales he won't be translated into Serbian, most probably :(