Reading Journal

Say what you think the author is trying to do or say. What is the author's main message or purpose? Say how well you think the author succeeds in what he or she is attempting and give reasons for your answer. It's not so easy to tell what the author tried to say. I wonder what Mark Haddon had in mind when he wrote this book. The idea of a teenage boy investing a murder of a poodle, it sounds unbelievably funny. The writing style he uses to emphasize a young boy's writing style is pretty entertaining and authentic.  Except that the given circumstances make the basis of this book very fascinating, I think that the story has a very common and unsurprising plot; you get to know a young boy that tries to find out about things that he isn't allowed to investigate. Through the story he experiences a lot of different emotions and conflicts but in the end, everything will be alright and because he is still so young, he learned some big lessons for the rest of his life. ...

In your own words what has happened in the book? At any point in the story, retell the major details of the story's plot so far.  The story begins with Christopher discovering Wellington‘s body. Because he likes dogs, he decides to find out who killed him and to write a book about it. To be a good detective, Chrisopher needs to grow far beyond his borders, the borders he has because of his aspergers syndrome. But it’s not only his own that Christopher crosses because in telling white lies and doing things his father forbid him to to, they get into a lot of fights with each other and their relationship starts falling apart more and more. And while investigating his case, Christopher comes across a lot more than just Wellingtons murderer, which is by the way his own father. He finds out that his presumed dead mother was still alive but she she ran away with Mr. Shears, the neighbour she had an affair with. She tried to contact Christopher many times in the past, but his father...

Choose an important moment in the story for one of the characters and write a diary entry for that character (ie. what that character would put into his or her personal diary for that day when the important thing happened). Try to write in a style you think fits the character's personality. Christopher just got to the train station and is about to go to London. While waiting for the train (he doesn‘t need to in the story but I chose this point to review his experiences) I started writing this diary entry because I need to wait for my train and when I write diary entrys I dont need to look at strangers and see everything because there would be too much information for me to handle and I would start groaning again. But if I started groaning again some strangers would notice me and talk to me and I dont like strangers talking to me. I will go and live with mother now until I go university because my father lied to me and you dont lie to people that you like. Also he killed Wellington ...

Write a short letter to the author/playwright or to one of the characters. Tell them what is on your mind.  Dear Judy Boone When I started reading the book, I felt sad about you not being part of this family anymore. But then I learned that you left your family - your beloved son and your husband. You didn‘t even try to get anything right, you simply ruined these other peoples lifes with your selfishness. I don’t know what happened to you but the way you write your letters trying to poorly convince Christopher, but rather yourself that you are not being the worst mother and wife of all time? Please. Despite the fact that you must be quite dumb because there are spelling errors in almost every sentence you write, there must also be many more issues about you. Do you really think that after leaving your own family it is enough for your husband and son to just write a letter from time to time? You REALLY don‘t miss your own kid enough to even try seeing him once? You know...

At any point in the story predict how some character is going to change/develop (character development) as the story progresses. How will they change? I decided to write about Christopher because I think that his character will be changed the most by the time the story is finished. By now his life is very monotonous, but that is also a point that makes perfectly sense if you think about how much he is restricted by external circumstances (cars, food, and so on..) and how hard this must be for other people to handle. You can already see slight changes in his personality, I remember a few times that Christopher decided to ignore his fears, sets his priorities different because he subscribed himself to a higher goal.  But how far will he really go?  I think there are still many possibilities how this book could end, but I will limit it to two very different outcomes: Either Christopher will break under the effects that the big wide world has on him, and he will end...

Write about the style of writing the author uses. In the novel Mark Haddon puts himself in the position of the 15 years old Christopher Boone. Because he is still very young, the author’s changed his style of writing and built his sentences in a special way (as a young boy might do). You already realise this if you have a look at the first few pages; Christopher or rather Mark Haddon uses many main clauses that are sparsely embellished and short. There are only a few sub-clauses and the order of words is often repeated. It is also interesting to see that the author rarely tried to connect two sentences, so his description of people, places or ongoing situations appear to be a list that is read down by someone. This style might be connected to Christopher’s disability and the analytical and rational perspective that comes with it. In my opinion, Haddon made it possible to create an interesting and unique mixture of a young inexperienced boy and an aloofed analyst. Doing so, Haddon ...