Book Review

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

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Book Review by Joyce Ruiz

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. OK, I really read this last year before we moved up here, but it is a GREAT mystery ? with lots more than that. This book is told from the viewpoint of an autistic fifteen-year-old. Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially inept, raised in a working-class home. He takes everything that he sees (or is told) at face value, and is unable to sort out what he sees as the strange behavior by others. There were times that I laughed out loud and looked around for someone so that I could read the particular passage to them as well. The plot is that late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle impaled on a garden fork. The poodle?s owner finds Christopher holding her dead dog in his arms, and has him arrested. After spending a night in jail, Christopher resolves--against the objection of his father and neighbors--to discover just who has murdered the poodle. Christopher?s social worker at his school suggests that he write a book about his investigations ? which is this book. Each chapter is given its own prime number and the book is illustrated. This book is 240 pages, but one of those books which you can read in just a few days. I recommend checking it out; if only to see the chapters listed in prime numbers, look at the illustrations and to see the style of Christopher?s thinking.