Host An Unforgettable Book Club Party

This book is about a boy with a keen attention to details, trying to figure out how the world works as he tries to solve the mystery of a murdered dog. Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher’ s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbor’s dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing. Christopher decides that he will track down the real killer, and turns to his favorite fictional character, the impeccably logical Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration. But the investigation leads him down some unexpected paths and ultimately brings him face to face with the dissolution of his parents’ marriage. As Christopher tries to deal with the crisis within his own family, the narrative draws readers into the workings of Christopher’ s mind.  -reprinted with permission from RandomHouse.com

Book Club Party Ideas for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Christopher is very particular about his likes and dislikes and he definitely dislikes anything brown or yellow so you will want to avoid these colors in your food and decorations.

Just like some people use the weather to determine if they are going to have a good day, Christopher uses how many cars he sees in a row:  4 yellow cars = Black Day, 5 red cars= Super Good Day.  For your decorations you can place 5 red cars on the table to let all your guests know it will be a Super Good Day (or use 9 to make it a Super Super Good Day).

You could also decorate with puzzles, especially ones that are math related.

Book Club Menu

Christopher likes to drink orange squash.  In doing research, it appears an orange squash is made from a concentrated syrup diluted with water.  This adult Orange Squash Cocktail is made with orange juice, lemon juice, tonic water and vodka.

Christopher likes Indian food because it has a strong taste, but when his dad serves Gobi Aloo Saag, which is yellow, he puts red food coloring in it (but after using a quarter of a bottle of red coloring, the yellow of the turmeric still came through). Gobi means cauliflower, aloo means potato and saag means spinach or mustard leaf.

As he went around the neighborhood trying to figure out who killed Wellington, he came to a neighbor who offered him Battenberg Cake, which typically has pink and yellow squares.  Or as described by Christopher “a long cake with a square cross section which is divided into equally sized, alternately colored squares.”  Since Christopher does not like yellow, this semi-homemade Easy Battenberg Cake is made with pink and green squares and pink marzipan.   Christopher also likes to eat pink wafer biscuits.

Book Club Resources

Ratings at the time this post was published

Discussion Questions for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

1. If you know someone with autism or an autism spectrum disorder, do you think the book accurately protrayed this set of disorders?  Which parts of the book were accurate?  Where do you think Christopher’s characteristics were inaccurate?
2. Did you enjoy the story as told by Christopher? Would it have been as intriguing if told by another character?
3. Were you able to find any justification in the behavior of his mother and father?
4. Did you enjoy the illustrations in the novel or were they more of a distraction?
5. There is a little bit of Christopher in all of us.  Are there certain aspects of your life that has to be done a certain way?

Purchase The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at your favorite bookseller

The Author

Mark Haddon is a writer and illustrator of numerous award-winning children’s books and television screenplays. As a young man, Haddon worked with adults and children with a variety of physical disabilities and learning difficulties. He teaches creative writing for the Arvon Foundation. He lives in Oxford, England.  The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction and the Whitbread Book of the Year award.

Awards

YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
2003 Whitbread Book of the Year
Booklist Editor’s Choice for Young Adults

School Library Journal Adult Books for Young Adults
ALA Best Books for Young Adults
NY Public Library Books for the Teen Age
NJ Garden State Teen Book Award
2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize of Europe and South Asia