The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time & Murphy's Boy -- heeeelp!

meredithangel · Wed Mar 17, 2010 4:32 pm

I need some input from people who have read these books! Or at least one of the two! I am a senior in High School & it is required for us to do a senior project. We get to choose our topic, & I chose Autistic Children because I want to work with autistic children in the future.

I am debating on reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon or Murphey's Boy, by Torey Hayden.

To be honest, I've never really enjoyed sitting down & reading a book. Math is definitely more my thing. So I really need a book that will keep me interested! I would really like anyone's opinion on either books to help make my decision easier!

Also, I need to be 100% positive that the child, within both books, has autism. I've tried to look it up, but I have not come across an answer to be confident in.

To sum it up, I need answers for the falling questions!

1. Which book did you like/dislike?

2. What did you like/dislike about the book?

3. Is the child within the book Autistic?

4. Anything else you'd like to say, I'd lovee to hear! (:

By the way,

Thank you thank you thank you sooo soo much! (:

Chris OConnor · Sun Apr 04, 2010 1:16 pm

If you would like to work with autistic children in the future you better develop an interest in reading. There will be extensive study and education involved in such a career. Something tell me you're not being completely honest with the reason why you are asking those questions. I could be wrong, but something is fishy with your post.

wilde · Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:25 pm

I agree with Chris. Maybe you should look over your career plans more carefully - I don't know how you want to work with Autism, but you're going to have to read a lot during college about it. Because I'm going to major in special education, and judging from my sample schedule, I only have to take 2 or so math classes. Maybe you should just teach math.

But from the description of Murphy's Boy, it doesn't sound like Autism so much as some sort of past trauma. The character's afraid of water and getting naked, and hates his stepfather, so it's probably sexual trauma of some kind.

The character in Curious Incident has Asperger's, which you should be familiar with. To sum it up, it's on the Autism spectrum.

And Chris, I'm always suspicious of someone whose first post is a new topic asking questions about a book they have to read for a class. :wink:

bleachededen · Sun Apr 04, 2010 6:31 pm

Why can't you read both?

It won't kill you, you know. And you might find you enjoy it.

Suzanne · Sun Apr 04, 2010 7:22 pm

Well, if you are doing a research project, I don't understand why you are debating over two books of fiction. It would seem more fitting to read non-fiction books about your topic. Neither one of these books are going to answer many questions about autism.

Chris may be right here.

Elizabite · Sun Sep 12, 2010 5:22 am

Hello Meredithangel.

I don't quite understand how these two books tie into your project, but I have read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, and I enjoyed it very much. The main character has Asperger's Syndrome, which is on the autistic spectrum as others have said. TCIOTDITNT is an easy read and very hard to put down once you get going. If you enjoy maths and have to read a book of fiction, it would probably be a good choice because it has some interesting facts about maths in it, and the main character's main talent is mathematics.

One thing that threw me about this book though, was the fact that the chapter numbers are out of order. Don't let this worry you, it was deliberately printed that way and if you read it through from beginning to end you'll eventually find out why. (If you don't work it out first.)

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