New Student Reader The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time By Mark Haddon Questions for New

Student Reader Discussion on August 25, 2006

1. On the very first page of the book what are the clues that the narrator thinks differently than others?

2.

What is the significance of the narrators choice in chapter numbers?

3.

What is the relationship between Siobhan and the narrator and what (if any) is her influence?

4.

What are puzzles and riddles so important to Christopher John Francis Boone?

5.

Why do you suppose that Christopher has such a strong affinity for dogs and other animals but not people?

6.

Metaphors confuse Christopher why do you think this is?

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New Student Reader The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time By Mark Haddon Questions for New Student Reader Discussion on August 25, 2006
7. Christopher is very precise, and as such his narrative is very precise and exact much more so than is seen in a traditional novel to the point where he even includes footnotes in the book. Does this level of exactingness help or hurt the overall narrative?

8.

How do some of the diagrams help the story/narration, and how do some of them make it harder to understand?

9.

Christopher sees things in patterns how does the readers experience in trying to understand his thought processes mirror Christophers own confusion in understanding other peoples thoughts?

10. Schedule and diet are important to Christopher he has lots of rules and superstitions about how things must be or must not be. Non-autistic people also have similar beliefs and rules what other characteristics do autistics share with non-autistics?

11. What is about Occams razor that so appeals to Christopher?

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New Student Reader The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time By Mark Haddon Questions for New Student Reader Discussion on August 25, 2006
12. Christophers parents interact with him in two very different ways which way do you think is better for Christopher which way is better for his parents?

13. Describe Christophers understanding of emotional states, particularly happiness and sadness. How does this understanding relate to or not related to his own emotional behavior?

14. Todays technology IM, text messaging, e-mail, etc. lets us use visual representations of emotions - - - and put in quick descriptions of what we are doing and not what we are feeling (i.e. LOL versus I think that is funny) how is this similar to how Christopher operates?

15. How does Christophers disability allow him to succeed, where other non-autistic children would fail?

16. Some people would label Christopher as disabled while others would refer to them as differently-abled what is the difference between these two terms and which is more accurate?

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