The CURIOUS INCIDENT of THE DOG IN ThE NIGHT- TIME/16

The above mentioned book is not only for adults but also for children.

And if you click on this link MARKHADDON you can read my summary and at the same time do a drag & drop exercise which can be corrected online.

I’ve removed four sentences or parts of sentences  from the article and you have to find out which is  the first, second, third or

fourth one that fits into the gap.

You can also listen to the summary. Click here:Mark Haddon/audio

Here is the summary of:

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME / BY MARK HADDON

During the last Christmas holidays I read the above mentioned and unputdownable story told from the point of view the 15 year old

Christopher Broone, who suffers from Asperger’s syndrom which is, as I found out. an autism spectrum disorder characterized by significant

difficulties in social interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests.

Christopher lives with his father and his pet rat Toby in  Swindon. His mother seems to be dead. When he is told of her death he remembers

a supper with spaghetti with tomato sauce.

He knows all the prime numbers, all the capital cities in the world but can’t  neither bear yellow, which reminds him of custard, yellow flowers,

bananas, yellow fever and sweet corn nor the colour brown of dirt, poo, wood or gravy. Different sorts of food that touches each other on his

plate is a horror for him. If he sees a meadow with cows on it he sees the various greens,the exact number of the cows and the differences

among them. He hates himself being touched and often he doesn’t want to eat.He sees things which we wouldn’t recognize but he doesn’t

get things which would be normal for us to see.  He can’t  prioritise and emotions confuse him and when he is confused he turns to solving

math problems.

He has never been further than the end of his road on his own when he discovers that his neighbour’s  dog was murdered and when he decides

to become a detective and find out who committed that crime with the help of the favourite, famous and completely logical  Sherlock Holmes.

At the beginning he is even suspected by the Police to be responsible for the killing.Christopher  speaks with his neighbours in order to discover

details about the dog’s death.

His father wants to prohibit him poking his nose into other people’s business and the former pretends even to throw away Christoper’s book

about the „case“. When the boy is looking for his vanished book, he also discovers many letters written by his mother and gets in this way

confronted with the breaking up of his parents’ marriage. He is  very confused  and it is most touching to read this. When his father tells

him what happened to the dog Christopher escapes from home and decides to go to  the big city of London

despite many very big problems  he has to overcome on this trip and that experience is going to help him in his future life, despite the fact

that there is no happy end.

Vocabulary explanation : Deutsch und italiano

-unputdownable/che non si riesce a mettere via/etwas das man nicht weglegen kann

-restricted/vermindert/diminuito

-committed/begann/commesso

-poo/Scheisse/cacca

-neither nor/weder noch/ne uno ne l’altro

-despite/trotz/malgrado

A link to a trailer of “The Hound of the  Baskervilles” with Sherlock Homes by Arthur  Conan Doyle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTUJLNZQQXI

Should anybody want to read the above mentioned story here is the link to it in 15 chapters.http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Hound_Baskervilles/Hound_Baskervilles01.html

You will also find multiple choice question about the book.