A Super Good Day

(A good sign for Christopher, the narrator of
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time)

This rationale sounds exactly like something my nephew, Mikey, would say. Mikey is 7 years old, loves to make graphs on the calculator, his favorite sandwich is a cheese sandwich with shredded cheese (NOT a grilled cheese), is lovingly obsessed with the video game Portal, is a literal genius on the piano, and has Aspberger's Syndrome. He deals with anxiety, sensory overload, and some awkward social interactions. And he's amazing. Maybe I'm biased (I am his aunt and he is my only nephew, after all) but he's pretty much my favorite person. I'm always learning something new from him -- whether it's a fact about the element neon or intuitive insight to his world.

On Wednesday, I was sitting in a 12th grade English class and learned they were about to begin a new book. As I listened to Ms. Roman describe The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon I decided that I would find the time to read it. She explained that the story is told from the point-of-view of a young boy dealing with Asperger's. She shared a list of common symptoms and characteristics that children on the Autistic spectrum deal with and specific Asperger's traits. I sat in the back of the room thinking of Mikey. I borrowed Ms. Roman's personal copy of the book and told her I might be able to finish it over the weekend, since I would be away in Vermont. I returned it to her on Thursday morning.

Throughout exams and study halls on Wednesday I devoured Haddon's novel -- by the time I got home I only had about 30 pages left and finished them quickly. Christopher, the main character, drew me into his world so fast and fully, I was surprised. The descriptions of his world gave me insight that made me really feel what he was going through. I felt that I understood his anxiety and his confusion as his story unfolded. Mark Haddon does an amazing job creating a bond between his readers and Christopher.

If you know anyone with Aspberger's, I recommend you read this book. If you don't know anyone with Aspberger's, I recommend this book even more. I am so glad Ms. Roman is using this novel in her class because it will share a new perspective of the world with students who are unfamiliar with the kinds of feelings and challenges kids like Christopher face.

A few selected quotes from the novel, to give you a taste of Haddon's style:

“On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.”

“A lie is when you say something happened which didn't happen. But there is only ever one thing which happened at a particular time and a particular place. And there are an infinite number of things which didn't happen at that time and that place. And if I think about something which didn't happen I start thinking about all the other things which didn't happen.
For example, this morning for breakfast I had Ready Brek and some hot raspberry milkshake. But if I say that I actually had Shreddies and a mug of tea I start thinking about Coco-Pops and lemonade and Porridge and Dr Pepper and how I wasn't eating my breakfast in Egypt and there wasn't a rhinoceros in the room and Father wasn't wearing a diving suit and so on and even writing this makes me feel shaky and scared, like I do when I'm standing on the top of a very tall building and there are thousands of houses and cars and people below me and my head is so full of all these things that I'm afraid that I'm going to forget to stand up straight and hang onto the rail and I'm going to fall over and be killed.
This is another reason why I don't like proper novels, because they are lies about things which didn't happen and they make me feel shaky and scared.
And this is why everything I have written here is true.”