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New Student Reader
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
By Mark Haddon
Questions for New Student Reader Discussion on August 25,
2006
1. On the very first page of the book what are the clues that
the narrator thinks differently thanothers?
2. What is the significance of the narrators choice in chapter
numbers?
3. What is the relationship between Siobhan and the narrator and
what (if any) is herinfluence?
4. What are puzzles and riddles so important to Christopher John
Francis Boone?
5. Why do you suppose that Christopher has such a strong
affinity for dogs and other animals
but not people?
6. Metaphors confuse Christopher why do you think this is?
New Student Reader Discussion Questions
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New Student Reader
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
By Mark Haddon
Questions for New Student Reader Discussion on August 25,
2006
7. Christopher is very precise, and as such his narrative is
very precise and exact much moreso than is seen in a traditional
novel to the point where he even includes footnotes in the
book. Does this level of exactingness help or hurt the overall
narrative?
8. How do some of the diagrams help the story/narration, and how
do some of them make itharder to understand?
9. Christopher sees things in patterns how does the readers
experience in trying to
understand his thought processes mirror Christophers own
confusion in understandingother peoples thoughts?
10. Schedule and diet are important to Christopher he has lots
of rules and superstitions about
how things must be or must not be. Non-autistic people also have
similar beliefs and rules what other characteristics do autistics
share with non-autistics?
11. What is about Occams razor that so appeals to
Christopher?
New Student Reader Discussion Questions
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New Student Reader
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
By Mark Haddon
Questions for New Student Reader Discussion on August 25,
2006
12. Christophers parents interact with him in two very different
ways which way do youthink is better for Christopher which way is
better for his parents?
13. Describe Christophers understanding of emotional states,
particularly happiness and
sadness. How does this understanding relate to or not related to
his own emotional
behavior?
14. Todays technology IM, text messaging, e-mail, etc. lets us
use visual representations of
emotions - - - - and put in quick descriptions of what we are
doing and not what we
are feeling (i.e. LOL versus I think that is funny) how is this
similar to how Christopheroperates?
15. How does Christophers disability allow him to succeed, where
other non-autistic
children would fail?
16. Some people would label Christopher as disabled while others
would refer to them asdifferently-abled what is the difference
between these two terms and which is more
accurate?
New Student Reader Discussion Questions
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