The curious incident of the dog at nighttime, is a book that has been recommended to me a lot of times. I was pretty hesitant about it at first, because I thought it would just be another informational book about how a young boy gets through daily life with his ‘handicap’. But after I started reading the book I realized it was everything but that. This book is an exciting and thrilling book about a young boy, trying to solve a murder. The focus is not at all on his handicap, but it is cleverly integrated throughout the whole book. I must say I was pleasurably surprised by this fact.
One aspect stood out to me immediately and that was the fact that the book had a lot of pattern. This was noticeable in the way that all of the chapters were prime numbers and that 1 chapter was about the story, the following about his life and the way he thought about things. And that repeated throughout the whole story. It was slightly distracting though to be interrupted in the story so often, and I can see that children would get lost and disinterested because of this.
I already knew a lot about Asperger syndrome, because of my previous education (a teacher’s assistant, where I have to learn a lot about these sort of things). So I was pleasantly surprised with the way the writer brought this particular disorder to life. It was down to a T what I had learned about it. It was quite enjoyable to read and think: “I cannot believe how well he integrated that aspect of not being able to touch anyone. And the colour of food, amazing how he knows so much about this! ”. I really quite admire the research the writer must have done!
I think older children might not like this story very much but the younger children will. They will not understand some of the deeper meanings in the book (the mother, not being dead foreshadowing). So I think the adult reader will be quite interested in the book too. The younger children will see this as a murder mystery book, like Christopher meant it to be. The older generation will probably focus more on the actions and thoughts of Christopher. To see what it is like to live with a disorder like Asperger. They will also be able to see that a lot of the ‘surprises’ that children encounter (the affair, father killing the dog, mother still alive, etc.) have been foreshadowed in the book in some way. Of course we do not know exactly what will happen, but you do realize that something is not quite right when you read that they will not visit their mother in the hospital. And when she dies, without Christopher seeing her a last time, you know something is up with that story.
In class we discussed this book as a crossover book. I originally had a different idea with the word crossover, but the fact that it is both enjoyable of kids and adults seems like an appropriate description. I think this book is a great example for these crossover books because of what I stated earlier: I think older children might not like this story very much but the younger children will. They will not understand some of the deeper meanings in the book (the mother, not being dead foreshadowing). So I think the adult reader will be quite interested in the book too. The younger children will see this as a murder mystery book, like Christopher meant it to be. The older generation will probably focus more on the actions and thoughts of Christopher.
KimOnBooks 