Autism Awareness April – Mark Haddon – Curious incident of the dog in the night time.

Mark Haddon – Curious incident of the dog in the night time.

Having read a few books about kids with Asperger’s, and as many other books (such as Palacio’s Wonder) are compared to Curious incident – I had great expectations for this novel.  Perhaps they were too big as I didn’t enjoy it as much as My Life as an Alphabet or Marcelo in the Real World. Perhaps, the other two (published more recently) were written in a much lighter style?  I found the story of Christopher (and his rat) amusing, enlightening and heartbreaking but the story of his parents was more confronting. We are all aware of the challenges of parenting, let alone those with kids with additional needs, but the fact that they clearly didn’t cope with the challenges that Christopher posed, worried me because it is probably more of a reflection of real society. It was an appropriate read for me as a teacher, as it gave me more of an insight into a whole lot of issues, but I am glad I don’t have to teach it to my students. That being said I would enjoy teaching it in tandem with the next novel I have blogged about because there are great similarities between the two.