Independent+Novel+Study

Jenna Miller, December 3rd.

Pages 1-34
 * __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time__ by Mark Haddon**

The sequence of events in this book is difficult to summarize, because the story, like the narrator's mind, switches back and forth very quickly. This book begins when the main character, Christopher Boone, notices that his neighbor's dog, Wellington, is dead.The dog has been stabbed with a pitchfork, and Christopher is wondering what happened. The main plot line in this story is Christopher trying to figure out who killed the Wellington. However, his telling of this story gets sidetracked easily, so there is a lot going on. The first thing that I noticed while reading this book is that the narrator is very exact about everything. For example, saying the exact minute something happened, stating exactly how far something moved, and noticing and explaining seemingly insignificant details. Christopher is very particular about things, such as how he does not understand metaphors because they sound like lies, and how has to always wear his watch because he likes to always know what time it is.
 * 2**.One thing that is important to know before reading this story is that Christopher is autistic.
 * 5**. Christopher is telling this story, so it is told in the first person. This affects the story immensely because he is autistic, so he sees the world very differently than most people.
 * 7**. The first problem faced by Christopher is finding Wellington dead, and then being arrested for hitting the police officer that tried to question him about what happened. He hits the officer because he touches Christopher, and Christopher does not like being touched.

10/10

Jenna Miller, December 10th

Pages 34-76
 * __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time__ by Mark Haddon**

This section begins as Christopher decides he is going to start his investigation about who killed Wellington, so he makes a plan of his street and talks to all the neighbours he knows. He talks to Mrs Alexander, and she offers him juice and cookies, but when she doesn't come back outside for a while, Christopher gets nervous and disappears. When he talks to Mrs Alexander later at the corner store, he finds out that his mother, before she died, was having an affair with Mr Shears, the husband of the woman that owns Wellington. Christopher does not understand emotions very well, so when he is asked if this makes him sad, he rationalizes that since neither his mother or Mr Shears are still around, why would he feel sad? The story then switches to a description of Christopher's favourite book, __The Hound of the Baskervilles__, a Sherlock Holmes book. He likes this story because it is a detective novel, so there are lots of clues that the reader has to figure out, and everything works out right in the end. It switches again, to when Christopher is remembering a conversation he had with one of the teachers at his school, Mr Jeavons. Mr Jeavons had said that Christopher likes math because it's safe and it always has a straightforward answer at the end. Christopher then explains his favourite math problem, The Monty Hall Problem. Christopher also reveals his love of being alone, saying how sometimes he curls up in the cupboard next to the boiler and is alone for hours. He says that makes him feel calm. He also says that he wants to be an astronaut, because in space he would be the only one around for millions of miles.
 * 3**. Something that had happened before the novel began was that Christopher's mother had to go to the hospital, and while she was there, she had a heart attack and died.
 * 8**. The author holds the reader's interest by writing from the point of view of an autistic child. This makes it interesting because he sees the world differently, and in a very detailed and exact way, and that world is explained throughout the story.
 * 10**. A plot twist that happens in the second section of this book is that Christopher finds out his mother had had an affair with Mr Shears, and that is why his father doesn't like Mr Shears.

10/10

Jenna Miller, December 29th

Pages 74-115
 * __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time__ by Mark Haddon**

The book continues in the section as Christopher's father finds and reads the book that Christopher has been writing, which details the events so far. He finds out that Christopher knows about the affair his mother had with Mr Shears, and pretends to throw the book away. Instead, he hides it in his room. Christopher then explains why he hates the colours yellow and brown, by giving examples of things he does not like which are yellow or brown. He then goes looking for his book, as he wishes to continue writing it. He finds it in a box in his father's bedroom, along with lots of letters addressed to him. He reads one, and finds out they are from his mother. Christopher takes the letters to his room and reads them, and then finds out that is mother is not actually dead, but had run away with Mr Shears. He then realizes that his father had lied to him.
 * 9.** New things that have been added to the plot are that Christopher's mother had an affair with their neighbor, and instead of being dead, is living in London with him.
 * 11**. They style of this novel is difficult to follow at the beginning, because it switches back and forth very quickly. However, the further you get into the book, you become accustomed to the switches, and it is no longer difficult.
 * 6**. The setting is in a small town in England. This is not very important, because the story does not focus on the setting very much. It could have been anywhere, the details would just have to be changed. More details for setting!

8/10

Jenna Miller, January 7th, 2011

Pages 115-198
 * __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time__ by Mark Haddon**

This section of the book begins while Christopher's father is trying to explain why he lied about Christopher's mother being dead. Christopher is still in shock, so he does not say anything. After his explanation, his father also tells Christopher that he was the one that killed Wellingtion, Mrs Shears' dog. When his father leaves, he decides that if his father could tell such a big lie and kill his neighbour's dog, then he could kill Christopher at any time too. Christopher decides to run away to go and find his mother, because even though she is far away, she is the only family that he feels comfortable enough to live with. He is very frightened throughout the trip on the subway and while wandering around London looking for his mother's house. However, he makes it there and is given a room to stay in for a while.
 * 13**. The age group that this novel is aimed at is probably adults, but is suitable for teenagers as well. This is because there is some language that is not appropriate for young children, and there is also some language that children would not understand. Also, because of Christopher's autism, the narration of this book is difficult to follow sometimes.
 * 15**. New characters that are introduced are Christopher's mother, and his old neighbour, Mr Shears. Mr Shears does not have a big role in this book, other than being the man that Christopher's father hates. He also tries to convince Christopher's mother that he should not stay with them, but other than that he is not a very big character. Christopher's mother is an important character because she is one of the reasons that Christopher ran away from his father in the first place. She, and the fact that she was supposedly dead, make the plot much more interesting, because if this story was mainly focused on who killed the dog, then it would not hold the attention of the reader very well.
 * 20**. I think this novel is believable, because the average reader wouldn't know how autistic children think, so even if some parts are exaggerated, they wouldn't know. Also, the plot does not have any far fetched concepts or happenings involved, so it is easy to believe.

Jenna Miller, January 11th, 2011

198-221
 * __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time__ by Mark Haddon**

In the final section of this book, Christopher and his mother leave Mr Shears while he is at work, because he is angry about Christopher staying with them, and his mother thinks he will hurt Christopher. However, now Christopher can't take his A-level math exam because his mother phoned the school and told them that he was in London and wouldn't be back to write it. This makes Christopher upset, but eventually it gets straightened out, and he takes the exam when they get back to Swindon. He is still scared of his father, but they start spending more time together, a few minutes more each day. Toby the rat died, so Christopher's father bought him a golden retriever puppy which he named Sandy. He gets an A on his exam, and decides to take the A-lever further math exam next year, and the A-level physics exam in two years. He says he will then go to university and become a scientist, and he knows he can do this because he went to London by himself, solved the mystery, he found his mother, was brave, and wrote a book and that means he can do anything.
 * 16**. The climax of this novel is when Christopher finds the letters from his mother, and his father explains that she is not really dead, and that he was the one that killed Wellington.
 * 21**. I would recommend this book to someone because even though the conflicts wouldn't be very interesting by themselves, reading it from Christopher's perspective is very engaging. As long as the reader could follow the switches back and forth as the book follow's Christopher's train of thought, I think someone else would enjoy this book.
 * 22**. This book exceeded my expectations because the perspective of the main character made the story a lot more interesting. I didn't really know much about this book, but I was told it was good.

Focus Assignment: Plot Summary

The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, is a very interesting story. The title has to do with the story because the actual book is supposed to have been written by the main character about the events that have happened. He only starts writing the book as a detective novel about the murder of his neighbor’s dog. This story takes place in a small town in England, in modern day, but this does not affect the story very much. This book is written from the perspective of Christopher Boone, who is autistic. This makes the story very interesting because it jumps back and forth very quickly, following Christopher’s train of thought. Because he is autistic, Christopher does not understand some things, such as metaphors and emotions. The story begins when Christopher is walking down his street in the middle of the night, and he notices his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, has been stabbed with a garden fork. He goes to investigate, but when his neighbor, Mrs Shears, notices what is going on, she calls the police, and they take Christopher in. The main goal of Christopher’s throughout the story is to find out who killed Wellington, and that investigation leads to many more discoveries. For example, he finds out why his father hates Mr Shears so much, even though he left a long time ago: he and Christopher’s mother had an affair. Also, Christopher has been told for most of his life that his mother is dead, but when looking for his book so he can continue writing, he finds a package of letters from his mother which explains that she is not dead, but had run away with Mr Shears, and is now living in London. When his father tries to explain why he lied to Christopher, he also mentions that it was him that had killed Wellington out of anger. This makes Christopher too scared to live with him, so he runs away to go and find his mother. In the end, Christopher and his mother go back to his father’s house, even though Christopher is still too scared to talk to his father. Eventually, his father asks Christopher if they could make it a project for Christopher to become more comfortable with his father, and for his father to be more trustworthy. They get a dog, Sandy, and Christopher finds out that he got an A on his math exam, which makes him happy. I enjoyed this book a lot, because it was very interesting reading from Christopher’s perspective. The events in the story would have been very emotional from another point of view, but because he does not understand emotions, it is written from a very literal, observational sense. I think the pictures in some spots in the story were very good at illustrating how simply Christopher’s mind works, and that made it easier to understand.