The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: The Play

By Mark Haddon

Book Overview

This schools' edition of Mark Haddon's multi-award-winning novel adapted for the stage of the National Theatre by Simon Stephens is perfect for Key Stages 3 and 4. Featuring the play script from the Modern Plays edition but with the language adjusted for school use*, this edition includes a wealth of classroom activities for the English and drama classrooms.

Christopher, fifteen years old, stands beside Mrs Shears's dead dog. It has been speared with a garden fork, it is seven minutes after midnight, and Christopher is under suspicion. He records each fact in the book he is writing to solve the mystery of who murdered Wellington. He has an extraordinary brain and is exceptional at maths, but he is ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, he detests being touched and he distrusts strangers. But Christopher's detective work, forbidden by his father, takes him on a frightening journey that turns his world upside-down.

This educational edition in Methuen Drama's Critical Scripts series has been prepared by national Drama in Secondary English experts Ruth Moore and Paul Bunyan. Building on a decade of highly effective work and publications endorsed by national organisations and supported by teachers and consultants across Britain, each book in the series:

> meets the requirements at KS3 and GCSE
> features detailed, structured schemes of work utilising drama approaches to improve literary and language analysis
> places pupils' understanding of the learning process at the heart of the activities
> will help pupils to boost English GCSE success and develop high-level skills at KS3
> will save teachers considerable time devising their own resources.

Simon Stephens's adaptation of Mark Haddon's bestselling, award-winning novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time offers a richly theatrical exploration of this touching and bleakly humorous tale.

* The instances of stronger language have been tempered in this edition specifically for school use. Teachers may still wish to satisfy themselves that it is suited to the age of their pupils.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1408185210
• ISBN13: 9781408185216
• Release Date: June 2013
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.7"

Customer Reviews

Great story, albeit exaggerated depiction

I find this book very interesting as someone who shares the main character's diagnosis. It's a very interesting story and a peek into the mind of a young man who finds it hard to relate to others, and whom in turn, others find it hard to relate to. I found myself reflected in many aspects of Christopher. However, this is still a terribly exaggerated depiction of Asperger's syndrome that contradicts itself at multiple points. It's a great story about Asperger's/the autism spectrum but it's not the best depiction of those disorders. Christopher has every single trait of Asperger's to the most extreme extent, a sky-high IQ, and multiple savant abilities. He's disabled when it's convenient for the plot and incredibly gifted when it's convenient for the plot. Multiple books inspired by this one (such as Mindblind) are worse-written depictions of the same "novelized Asperger's". In reality, I have yet to meet anyone with Asperger's or anywhere else on the autism spectrum who presents anything like Christopher. I think it would have been interesting had Haddon went with his initial intention and written the character without the intent of making him have any particular disability. That being said, as I mentioned before there were still many things the depiction got right or at least have a hint of truth, and the story's writing is very unique and enjoyable. It also gave me an insight into English culture and family life I as a Yank sorely lack.

Literally one of my favorite books of all time. Great story, great characters and important / thou

Everything : Captivating from start to finish

Love it

It reminds me of a friend that I met through volunteering so it’s just wonderful.

Loved it

A heartwarming story about a troubled lonely boy that begins with him investigating a missing dog and then turns into adventures and connecting with community and family

Great Book

I liked the book and the storyline. It tackles topics not seen in many books with an accuracy that reveals the author has a lived experience with persons like the main characters. I loved that. Worth reading if you are looking for a book on family dynamics, UK-based novels, or families navigating children with autism. I've shared the book with friends and they feel seen in the narrative. Plus, I really adore the main character's commitment to numbers; wonderful literary touch.

A very interesting book

I was not sure what this book was about, but it sounded interesting. It was very eye-opening. Written from a young boy's viewpoint, you must read it as such. Everything will be explained over the course of the book. You really get to admire the story teller over the course of the book

Curious Incident was not so curious

I read the first 20 pages and decided life was too short to read on.

So so good

Another favorite of mine, this was so charming to me. This book makes you feel so many emotions, kind of breaks your heart a little.

This is a very unusual story. My 2nd reading after reading the original Holmes by Conan Doyle - from

Smart kids will enjoy this story of odd people like us, odd things that happen, and how one thinks about them. You might like it too.

Such an important book!

I love this book so much. The point of view is so original and important. Such an eye opening read.

I love this book!

I read this in highschool. My younger sister has autism and it kind of helped me understand the way she thinks.

Heartwarming

As someone with a sibling on the spectrum, I loved this book.

Take a trip through a mind...

Right away you notice something different about the book. It is written from the point of view of a 15-year-old boy with Asperger's Syndrome, which is essentially a type of autism. He is amazingly brilliant with math, and likes everything in his life being orderly and as mathematically based as possible. He is constantly coming up with equations to help him understand the world around him. He cannot however understand emotions, does not like being touched, and has little (if any) intuition in many scenarios. (For example, when asked to guess what was in a candy tin, he said candy. It was opened and there was a pencil inside. The tin was then re-closed and he was asked "What would your mother walked in right now, what would she guess is inside the tin?" and he said a pencil.) The best way to describe him is being almost entirely left brained. All logic; no emotion. In a sense, he is entirely objective... no emotions to cloud the thought. As I continued my journey, I got pulled out of my world and into his. If you've ever wanted to get inside someone's heads and know their thoughts, know how they perceive the world around them, what upsets them, how they react to things, how they deal with stress, how they feel about others... really get inside the brain... well, this book is for you! You are totally immersed in this brilliant child's mind. Suddenly you become fully aware of this entirely different way of viewing the world, a different way of processing information and facts. It seemed like I gained a whole new understanding of the world about me by reading the book. (A truly special journey for those who are very right-brained, especially!) I get lost in thought sometimes, wondering about our brains and how so much is unused and how great it would be to utilize those portions... or I think how great it would be if my memory was able to remember everything... but then I think that would be too much, too difficult... there is perhaps a defense mechanism within most brains that allows us to only see what we need or want to see, so we don't become totally over stimulated and shut down. Christopher, the autistic narrator, seems to have proved my theory correct. He sees and remembers everything. He can't just glance down a street and think, "here is a tree lined street with several three flats" he takes it all in. Every last detail is forever stored in his brain. How many trees, how tall, which kind, their exact location, what flowers are around them, how many cars, what colour they are, what stickers they have on them, the type, where street lights are placed, etc etc etc ad nausem. He won't forget any of it. He can say on which day at which time he was where, and what the exact looks of everything was. For this reason he has an immense distaste for new places. They are too overwhelming, his brain taking every detail in. Imagine trying to go to a mall when your brain is taking in every detail in camera-like precision. How many people there are, what

You've read nothing like this before!

This book will knock your socks off! I guarentee you've never read anything like this before. Christopher gives Rain Man a run for his money!Mark Haddon has done a superb job of creating the character of Autistic Christopher. What's more, as you start reading, he's not a character any longer, he's real...In this book Christopher has found his neighbor's dog murdered, so he decides to play detective, like his idol Sherlock Holmes, and find out who killed him. So begins the journey, which actually leads into ta much larger adventure, as Christopher begins to uncover that things in his life are not as they seem. You see, Christopher may be autistic, but he's a wiz at math and science and he's also unusually perceptive. The way Haddon goes through Chris's thought process and daily activities is pure genius. And to add depth to the story, I found his parents & some of the other characters in this book, also very "real". There aren't any perfect people in this book, this is real life.I sincerely recommend this book to you. It's a quick read at only 220 pages, and the wit at which Haddon writes, makes those pages fly by. Very rarely does a book make me laugh out-loud, and this book did that several times. Bravo!

An amazing fictional leap

Mark Haddon has written a moving novel about love and bravery through the eyes of a British autistic boy. Christopher discovers his neighbor's poodle dead, impaled by a pitchfork, and, because he adores puzzles, he sets out to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington . But Christopher is autistic, a boy who doesn't like to be touched and cannot decipher emotions beyond the tools his teacher has taught him, and so the task requires the huge effort of testing rules and facing his own fears. A literalist by neurology, he deconstructs life into a set of mathematical equations and physical laws. This unique perspective makes him a good detective on one level, where clues and logic rule, but it also fails him on another, higher one because he cannot understand the magnitude of what he uncovers. That Haddon was able to write a book from Christopher's point of view with all his quirks and still make him lovable is extraordinary. By necessity, the writing is simple and unadorned, but the language of details elevates it from the mundane. The insertion of mathematical puzzles and drawings add to the reader's understanding of how Christopher's mind works. Haddon's real skill is an understatement that allows the reader to comprehend what is going on even if Christopher cannot. Although Christopher cannot grasp subtlety and nuances, the reader can, and that's where the true force of this exceptional novel lies.This short, easy to read book can be completed in a couple of sittings, although its impact will last much longer. Highly recommended for a general readership.