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This post written by Clint The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
by Mark Haddon
[cover name=thecuriousincidentofthedoginthenighttime]
Christopher is 15 years old, and he tells us he has “Behavioral Problems.” He carries a knife with a saw-blade that (he thinks) would be good for cutting off somebody’s fingers. He wouldn’t mind if everyone else in the world just vanished one day. He likes math. However, he’s not a serial killer or anything even remotely like that.
Christopher’s brain works in a different way. He has trouble understanding feelings or interpreting facial expressions. He pays attention to everything, so crowds or some kinds of noises or lots of signs or even looking out the window while he’s on a train overwhelm him. He really hates being touched. That’s part of why he doesn’t like people.
The story is told entirely from Christopher’s point of view. It begins when he discovers that his neighbor’s dog, Wellington, has been murdered. Since Christopher loves Sherlock Holmes, and since he really liked Wellington, he decides to investigate the murder and bring the killer to justice. The murder is solved about half way through the book, but it leaves Christopher in the middle of an even bigger problem, and he spends the rest of the story dealing with it.
People seem to either love or hate this book. I think one reason some people hate it is the writing style, which I can kind of understand. Since Christopher is telling the story, he tells it his way. However, this didn’t bother me. I actually thought it was pretty easy to read. However, I’ve noticed that a lot of people feel cheated because they thought it was a very different kind off book than it really is. Let me try to clear up some of the most common myths I’ve seen about this book.
Myth 1: This is a murder mystery. Well, that’s what Christopher says, but he’s wrong. This is a novel about Christopher, his life, and his family. In fact, Christopher spends every other chapter writing about his daily life, his hopes and dreams, and his hobbies. He is very fond of mathematics and physics, and he talks about math a lot.
Myth 2: This book is for kids. Actually, the author got tired of writing books for kids, so he wrote this one for adults. His agent decided that it would be good for kids, too, so one edition was published for adults and one edition was published for children. Just so you know, there’s a lot of swearing in it, and bodily functions appear more than a few times.*
Myth 3: This is an accurate, scientific portrayal of autism. It isn’t. In fact, the author never says that Christopher is on the autism spectrum. He never claims that Christopher has Asperger syndrome. The author used to work with people who had autism, and he says he basically combined various traits of people he knew to create Christopher. He didn’t go out and do any research. You might want to check out this interesting article about the book written by a man with Asperger syndrome.
If you want to give the book a try, you can read an excerpt of it at the publisher’s website or Google Books.
*: One way to get a book marked as “Literature” is to kill an animal, talk about bodily functions, and make the main characters people you wouldn’t want to hang out with all the time. Having the main character talk about academic topics also helps.
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This post written by Clint The Invention of Hugo Cabret
by Brian Selznick
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Hugo’s father used to work in a museum. That’s where he found the automaton – a clockwork human sitting at a desk, ready to write a letter. Sadly, the automaton was broken, and Hugo’s father never figured out how to repair it. When he died, Hugo inherited the mechanical man and his father’s notebooks.
Hugo also inherited his uncle’s job, sort of. His uncle used to keep all the clocks in a Paris train station wound and running okay. In exchange, he and Hugo were allowed to live in a little apartment in the station. His uncle disappeared one day, so now Hugo secretly winds all the clocks on his own. As long as nobody notices that his uncle is gone, Hugo can keep living in the station and trying to fix the automaton.
Hugo needs parts to fix the automaton, so he steals toys from a toy store in the train station. He’s not that good of a thief, though, so the shopkeeper catches him, confiscates the notes his father gave him, and makes him work to pay for everything he stole. Then things get complicated.
The story is told through a mix of pictures and words. This isn’t quite the same as most graphic novels, where pictures contain words. Instead, some pages have words and others have pictures, but the two don’t really mix. You might find thirty or forty pictures in a row with no words, so you really have to pay attention to the art if you want to understand what is going on in the story.
You can watch a slide show of the opening pictures at the author’s website.
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This post written by Clint Wake
by Lisa McMann
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Janie Hannagan has a special power, or maybe a curse: whenever someone nearby falls asleep and starts to dream, Janie is sucked into the dream. She gets tag along while somebody flies around, shows up to work naked, or falls and falls and falls. Sounds fun, right? Janie is in high school, so she gets pulled in every time somebody falls asleep in class. She works at a nursing home, so she gets pulled in every time a resident dozes off.
She learns a lot about other people this way. She knows who who has a secret crush on her best friend, for example. She knows that somebody who lives on Waverly Road is really messed up. She knows that Cable, the class slacker, has dreams about her. Then she finds herself in one of Cable’s a really messed up nightmares, and she decides to stop watching and try to fix things.
You should know a few things about this novel before you start. First, a lot of it takes place in the dreams of teenagers. You know what that means. Second, there is a lot of swearing. Third, some people are put off by the writing style. You might want to preview it at Google Books.
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This post written by Clarissa Magic Bites
by Ilona Andrews
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Kate Daniels is a kind of soldier-for-hire in an imaginary version of Atlanta, carrying a sword, some words of power, and no tolerance for fools. In this world, sometimes magic flares up and the electricity goes out, and sometimes magic goes down and the spells that she has protecting her house from bad things fail, and creeping vampires get in. (Vampires are incredibly disturbing and unnatural in this series–not sexy at all! Shapeshifters–people who can turn into animals, etc.–on the other hand, can be dangerously attractive.) In Kate’s world, there are rules about magic, about vampires, about shapeshifters, and about how all of these things interact. Kate’s not really fond of rules, though, which is one reason she’s a mercenary and not part of any organization. But in order to avenge the death of someone important to her, she agrees to work with an organization. That makes life complicated. There are a lot of complications coming her way–plenty of danger, a little romance, yikes! Kate is the kind of person who kicks butt first and asks questions later, but she’ll figure it all out eventually. Assuming she can get a handle on her drinking problem …
One of the best things about the book is that you can tell the author has really thought through the setting. A lot of recent supernatural investigation/urban fantasy novels focus on either romance or sex and don’t spend a lot of time creating a cool, detailed world, but this author has really put a lot of thought into how things work. That’s appreciated. (There’s some romance, but it’s definitely not the main feature.)
This is Ilona Andrews’ first book, and English is not her first language. If you’re really sensitive to grammar, you might notice a couple of awkward spots, but overall, the writing is fine. People who have read the second and third books say that they get better and better. (Plus, it’s great to see more published authors whose first language isn’t English! Andrews’ first language is Russian, and you’ll see some references to Russian culture and language in the story, which is cool.)
You can read an excerpt online at the author’s website.
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This post written by Clint What Happened to Cass McBride?
by Gail Giles
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What happened to Cass McBride? Well, the short version is that she’s buried in a box with a crude air supply and a walkie-talkie so that Kyle, the guy who put her there, can keep taunting her. Why did Kyle put her in a box? The simple answer is that she may have had something to do with his brother David’s suicide. The real story, of course, is more complicated.
Kyle seems to hold all the cards, since he’s not in a box, but the police are looking for Cass, and as long as she can keep Kyle talking, she has a chance.
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