What’s on my nightstand? The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon.

Connections! Last week I finished Al Capone Does My Shirts which featured a boy with an autistic sister. This week’s read is about an autistic boy. Christopher is 15. He knows “all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507.” He finds his neighbor’s dog dead and is determined to find out who killed it.

I’m not finished, so I don’t know the answer, but I’m already singing praises of this book. “Voice” is the Get-Out-of-Slush free card in children’s and YA publishing, and if you’re uncertain what “voice” is, read this book; it’s got “voice” in spades. I’ve never been inside the head of an autistic person, but I have studied the condition and I’ve worked with autistic kids. I didn’t need to know the MC was autistic going in, the text made it clear on page one. Regardless of whether an autistic person would identify with it, it is spot-on the perception I had. I wonder what an autistic person would think of it.

Aside: I remember hearing a story of an autistic teen watching a program about autism and saying to his mother, “That’s what I have, isn’t it?” No idea if that’s a true story, but it was told as one.

Have you ever read Flowers for Algernon? I read that as a teen and loved it. This book somehow reminds me of that.

I’ve been going to bed early to have extra reading time, and that’s what I’m doing right now.

Your turn. What are you reading?

PS – Thanks to Becca for this book.