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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time |  | Author: Mark Haddon
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $0.07
as of 3/18/2010 04:32 MDT details
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Seller: goodwillnyonline
Rating:  1593 reviews
Sales Rank: 847
Media: Paperback
Edition: Later printing
Pages: 226
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 1400032717
EAN: 9781400032716
ASIN: 1400032717
Publication Date: May 18, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9781400032716 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
Mark Haddon's bitterly funny debut novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is a murder mystery of sorts--one told by an autistic version of Adrian Mole. Fifteen-year-old Christopher John Francis Boone is mathematically gifted and socially hopeless, raised in a working-class home by parents who can barely cope with their child's quirks. He takes everything that he sees (or is told) at face value, and is unable to sort out the strange behavior of his elders and peers. Late one night, Christopher comes across his neighbor's poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork. Wellington's owner finds him cradling 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 Wellington. He is encouraged by Siobhan, a social worker at his school, to write a book about his investigations, and the result--quirkily illustrated, with each chapter given its own prime number--is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Haddon's novel is a startling performance. This is the sort of book that could turn condescending, or exploitative, or overly sentimental, or grossly tasteless very easily, but Haddon navigates those dangers with a sureness of touch that is extremely rare among first-time novelists. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is original, clever, and genuinely moving: this one is a must-read. --Jack Illingworth, Amazon.ca
Product Description
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 Christopherâs 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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1593
 Reading with Tequila March 10, 2010
Jennifer Sicurella (New Jersey, USA)
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time began beautifully. The mystery of who killed a dog, shown through the eyes of a 15-year-old autistic boy, was more intriguing and entertaining than most of today's generic amateur sleuth mysteries. Written in an easy to read format with helpful diagrams, this book appeared to be an interesting tale that could perhaps shine a little light on the thought processes of autistic teenagers.
About halfway through the book, the dog's murderer confesses and then entire focus of the story shifted. Instead of a mystery, it became a rambling tale of running away from home. It went from engrossing to dull in the turn of a page. With the story switching gears so unexpectedly, it felt as though the book was in fact two separate stories (featuring common characters) pasted together to create a book. It felt off, like something just wasn't fitting properly.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time's quirky uniqueness didn't translate through the second half of the book. This was a case of an amazing book turning dreary. Had the entire book been dull, it might almost have been better.
 Wise, in His Own Way, Beyond his Years March 3, 2010
Tracy Oshima (Long Beach, California)
Christopher Boone, the narrator of this story, is a fifteen year old Rain Man. He is as gifted mathematically as Dustin Hoffman was in the movie, but he's as helpless as he was as well, he's socially without a clue. He sees things differently than others, in his words, "My memory is like a filmÉ.And when people ask me to remember something I can simply press Rewind and Fast Forward and Pause like on a video recorder." He takes what he's told and what he sees at face value.
When he discovers Wellington, a neighbor's pet poodle, killed, stabbed with a pitchfork, he is at first blamed, then he decides to find out for himself who forked the dog. Using Sherlock Holmes as his model, he digs into the crime and this forces him to foray out into the real world, away from the familiar safety of his home and special school. And it also leads to an unraveling of his own family's history. He learns a secret that forces him to re-evaluate everything he's taken for granted and that's pretty scary stuff for a boy like Christopher.
Christopher is a wonderful character and he walks through an endearing story well told. This is a book that should be on everybody's Christmas or birthday list. I can't praise it highly enough.
High School Reading February 27, 2010
Dr. Dolly (DAVIS, CA, US)
I am the school psychologist for a class of teens with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) and related disorders. I purchased a classroom set of books, including the discussion guide and audio set, for the teacher to use as a class project for literature and as part of our disability awareness. Students with AS have a poor sense of self which underlies their deficits in Theory of Mind (that others have thoughts and feelings different from their own) and social communication. The main character, Christopher, so accurately demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of AS. What is most fascinating is that my students, who are aware of their disability, cannot relate at all to the main character, even though Christopher has very similar behaviors to their own. All of this reveals how really impaired AS students are in terms of their intra-personal intelligence and ability to manage in every day life although they are bright and knowledge in other ways. The class is progressing slowly through this book, which is a remarkable story and beneficial for teens with AS to read. However, it is more appropriate to read through with them to get maximum benefit. It is a must reading for parents and others who want to understand Asperger's syndrome in every day life.
I would recommend it to anyone. February 26, 2010
P. Andrus (San Jose, CA)
I read this book because my girlfriend works with Autistic children and she wanted to read it together. I didn't expect much; from the cover, I thought it was Young adult liturature. It turns out that it was a great read with a lot of depth. It was amazing how much tension resulted from everyday situations when seen through the eyes of someone with Aspeger's. It definitly increased my perspective on this condition. Despite the tension it was a pleasant read, with a lot of humor. It was a good page turner for me. I stayed up way too late finishing it.
Fantastic book and very moving February 26, 2010
Z. Belle (DENVER, CO, US)
Well I read many of the reviews and I was very disappointed to see how many people hated this book. Since I didn't know anything about autism I was very interested to see what this book was about. I really, really liked it and I now want to lean more about autism. If I think that way after reading this maybe there are others who think similar and that is a good thing. I don't believe this is the only way to view autism, but it is A way. THIS IS A NOVEL or fiction, not a true storry! Since I read this book I talked to some people who have kids with autism and many say this book is a fiction, but has some true elements.
I just want to say to the parents of autistic children who hated this book, that I now want to learn more about Your child's condition and maybe one day I will work with kids like Yours and help them. You never know where you find inspiration and interest in a subject so keep Your mind and heart open!!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1593
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