My name is Christopher John Francis Boone. I know all the countries of the world and their capital cities and every prime number up to 7,507.
Eight years ago, when I first met Siobhan, she showed me this picture
and I knew that it meant ’sad’, which is what I felt when I found the dead dog.
Then she showed me this picture
and I knew that it meant ‘happy’, like when I’m reading about the Apollo space missions, or when I am still awake at three or four in the morning and I can walk up and down the street and pretend that I am the only person in the whole world.
Then she drew some other pictures
but I was unable to say what these meant.
I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant. I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn’t understand what someone was saying. But it was very difficult to decide which of the diagrams was most like the face they were making because people’s faces move very quickly.
When I told Siobhan that I was doing this, she got out a pencil and another piece of paper and said it probably made people feel very
and then she laughed. So I tore the original piece of paper up and threw it away. And Siobhan apologised. And now if I don’t know what someone is saying I ask them what they mean or I walk away.
I’ve been reading Zac “The curious incident of the dog in the night time” by Mark Haddon. I read it when it came out and gave a copy to Olivia who loved it. Zac is no less enthusiastic. He spotted that the chapter numbers were all primes, laughs loudly every couple of pages and is bemused often by the turns of phrase. They narrator is an autistic child, but we’re never told this. Zac asked whether it was a robot or a computer.
it is about the best book for kids i can think of. pretty high up there for adults, too. the chapter where the narrator tries to negotiate the london underground is extraordinary.
if you haven’t read it, then you should.
