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

I bought this book after seeing the controversy it caused on the Trademe message boards one day. One mother was up-in-arms about the fact that her 14-year-old son had been given this book to read at school simply because the cover has a dead dog with a garden fork through its stomach on it. If the mother had taken the time to read the book herself she would see that (well in my opinion) it is perfectly okay for 14 year olds to read. It is quite a simple book and didn’t take me too long to read but I found it quite interesting. Although it doesn’t have a clear story it still managed to suck me in and I was desperate to find out what happened next.

The story follows 15-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone, who suffers from autism yet has a brilliant mind, particularly when it comes to mathematics. Christopher comes across the dead body of his neighbour’s dog, Wellington, who has been stabbed with a garden fork. After being blamed for the death of the dog, Christopher embarks on a quest to discover who is responsible for the crime.

Although the story itself doesn’t sound that riverting, which I suppose it really isn’t that interesting, what sets the story apart from other books I have read is the way the author has shown how Christopher’s mind works. You see the way Christopher works through the problems, calms himself down, sticks to what he knows and even how frequently he uses math problems as a way of passing time. You begin to understand the reasons why those with autism may avoid eye contact, not wish to be touch and being unable to read other people through their facial expressions and eye movements. Behaviour such as hand flapping, rocking, head banging are all symptoms that you would regularly see in autistic people yet it is not until reading this book that I began to understand just how ingrained this behaviour is into those suffering from autism.

If you are interested in all at getting into the brain of an autistic person at all, give this book a go. I really enjoyed it, it is a little strange but very informative.