The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Published by David Fickling Books, 2003

“3 red cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Quite Good Day. 4 red cars mean that it is going to be a Good Day. 5 red cars mean that it is going to be a Super Good Day. And 4 yellow cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Black Day, which is a day when I don’t speak to anyone and don’t eat my lunch and Don’t Take Risks, because yellow is the colour of custard and double yellow lines and Yellow Fever which is a deadly disease.”

This short excerpt taken from the book epitomises the thinking of fifteen-year-old Christopher who has a form of autism called Asperger’s Syndrome. These lines are indicative of the reasoning that Christopher applies to common, recurring, everyday incidents making his behaviour seem strange and incomprehensible to us when in fact it is perfectly logical to him.

In his mission to find the killer of his neighbour’s dog Wellington and write a murder mystery about it, Christopher unearths much more information than he could possibly have imagined lay uncovered about himself.

The author, Mark Haddon has got inside the mind of Christopher to such an incredible degree that the reader becomes totally immersed in the main character’s way of thinking.

It is because of this that we can almost physically experience hurt and pain when his Dad is angry with him or sadness when his Mum’s boyfriend speaks about him as if he’s not there. We are frightened when he heads off for London to find his Mum who he had been led to believe was dead. Indeed at times I’m sure we are more worried and sad than Christopher himself.

This book will make you laugh, it will make you cry and once you start reading it you will not stop until Christopher vows to get a First Class Honours Degree and become a scientist on the last page. It is a story that will be enjoyed by older children, teenagers and adults alike.

Writing in the Spring 2004 issue of Inis the Children’s Books Ireland magazine, Mary Byrne bemoans the pervasiveness of the ‘trilogy’ in children’s publishing during 2003. She has the following to say of Haddon’s book;

“What about Mark Haddon and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Now if I were his publisher, I’d be wishing that was a trilogy.”

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is the winner of the Whitbread Novel Award 2003.

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