The Curious Incident of the Blog in the Night-time

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon follows a young boy with Autism Spectrum Disorder as he tries to solve the murder case of the neighborhood dog. I think that this book works well because it manages to tell a compelling story without making the point of the novel solely pointing out that the main character has autism. Haddon shows the thought process of someone with autism in a realistic and believable way but also has Christopher deal with problems in life that anyone could be struggling. The fact that any adolescent could be dealing with the divorce of their parents makes this such a good book to teach teenagers. This novel shows not only the struggle of someone dealing with ASD but also how parents of a child with this syndrome have to learn to live with it. Christopher's father knows that it would be difficult for Christopher to understand that he can't see his mother anymore, so he tells him that she's dead. Is that the best way to deal with that situation? Probably not. Christopher's father is shown to be understanding of his sons condition by not hugging him, because Christopher doesn't like to be touched, but rather putting their finger tips together. Haddon also showed how many people with ASD can be sensitive to sound and can get overwhelmed when they are around too many people. I think it is important to expose teenagers to concepts like ASD because it shows them that stuff like this does exist and how they can be helpful to those dealing with it. It teaches them to be more inclusive because I know many people with ASD can be bullied for being different and it's because many students don't understand what ASD is.

I think one of the more important aspects of the novel are how Christopher's parents treat him. In a lot of examples of teenagers in popular culture, the parents are shown to be overly supportive and it's always the teenager's fault for being moody. Which, most of the time, is a false representation of situation. Christopher's father is shown to be understanding but can often loose his patience with Christopher, but his mother just abandoned him because she couldn't deal with him anymore. Christopher's father is not a perfect example but he is shown to be understanding. This is important for adolescents because every teenager hates their parents in some capacity while they are going through this time in their life, and while a lot of it is melodramatic, there are some students that could be coming from households with abusive parents. It's important to show students that they are not alone and sometimes they have to stand up for themselves.

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