The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Author: Mark Haddon
Publisher: Anchor Canada
ISBN: 0307371565
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Book Description
A bestselling modern classic—both poignant and funny—narrated by a fifteen year old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions. 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 neighbour’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 favourite 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. And herein lies the key to the brilliance of Mark Haddon’s choice of narrator: The most wrenching of emotional moments are chronicled by a boy who cannot fathom emotions. The effect is dazzling, making for one of the freshest debut in years: a comedy, a tearjerker, a mystery story, a novel of exceptional literary merit that is great fun to read.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (SparkNotes Literature Guide)

Author: SparkNotes
Publisher: Spark Notes
ISBN: 9781411471009
Category : Study Aids
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, each title in the 'Sparknotes' series contains complete plot summary and analysis, key facts about the work, an analysis of the major characters, suggested essay topics, themes, motifs, and symbols, and an explanation of important quotations.

The Porpoise

Author: Mark Haddon
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385544324
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
In a bravura feat of storytelling, Mark Haddon calls upon narratives ancient and modern to tell the story of Angelica, a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship with her father. When a young man named Darius discovers their secret, he is forced to escape on a boat bound for the Mediterranean. To his surprise he finds himself travelling backwards over two thousand years to a world of pirates and shipwrecks, of plagues and miracles and angry gods. Moving seamlessly between the past and the present, Haddon conjures the worlds of Angelica and her would-be savior in thrilling fashion. As profound as it is entertaining, The Porpoise is a stirring and endlessly inventive novel from one of our finest storytellers.

Marcelo in the Real World

Author: Francisco X. Stork
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 054505690X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 323

Book Description
Marcelo Sandoval, a 17-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780618329700
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Book Description
Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. What he discovers is solace in that most human quality, imagination. Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away? What if you could actually hear everyone's heartbeat? His goal is hopeful, but the past speaks a loud warning in stories of those who've lost loved ones before. As Oskar roams New York, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity who are all survivors in their own way. He befriends a 103-year-old war reporter, a tour guide who never leaves the Empire State Building, and lovers enraptured or scorned. Ultimately, Oskar ends his journey where it began, at his father's grave. But now he is accompanied by the silent stranger who has been renting the spare room of his grandmother's apartment. They are there to dig up his father's empty coffin.

The Sense of an Ending

Author: Julian Barnes
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307957330
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Book Description
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.

Home of the Brave

Author: Katherine Applegate
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
ISBN: 1466887834
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
Bestselling author Katherine Applegate presents Home of the Brave, a beautifully wrought middle grade novel about an immigrant's journey from hardship to hope. Kek comes from Africa. In America he sees snow for the first time, and feels its sting. He's never walked on ice, and he falls. He wonders if the people in this new place will be like the winter – cold and unkind. In Africa, Kek lived with his mother, father, and brother. But only he and his mother have survived, and now she's missing. Kek is on his own. Slowly, he makes friends: a girl who is in foster care; an old woman who owns a rundown farm, and a cow whose name means "family" in Kek's native language. As Kek awaits word of his mother's fate, he weathers the tough Minnesota winter by finding warmth in his new friendships, strength in his memories, and belief in his new country. Home of the Brave is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

DNA

Author: Dennis Kelly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350188069
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 113

Book Description
This new Student Edition of Dennis Kelly's popular play DNA contains introductory commentary and notes by Clare Finburgh Delijani, which gives an in-depth analysis of the play's context and themes. As well as the complete text of the play, this new Methuen Drama Student Edition includes: · An introduction to the playwright and social context of the play · Discussion of the context, themes, characters and dramatic form · Overview of staging and performance history of the play · Bibliography of suggested primary and secondary materials for further study. Dennis Kelly's play DNA centres on friendship, morality and responsibility in odd circumstances. When a group of young friends are faced with a terrible accident, they deliberately make the wrong choices to cover it up and find themselves in an unusually binding friendship where no one will own up to what they've done.

Satellite

Author: Nick Lake
Publisher: Ember
ISBN: 1524713562
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Book Description
A teenage boy born in space makes his first trip to Earth in this engrossing sci-fi adventure for fans of The Martian from award-winning author Nick Lake. He’s going to a place he’s never been before: home. Moon 2 is a space station that orbits approximately 250 miles above Earth. It travels 17,500 miles an hour, making one full orbit every ninety minutes. It’s also the only home that fifteen-year-old Leo and two other teens have ever known. Born and raised on Moon 2, Leo and the twins, Orion and Libra, are finally old enough and strong enough to endure the dangerous trip to Earth. They’ve been “parented” by teams of astronauts since birth and have run countless drills to ready themselves for every conceivable difficulty they might face on the flight. But has anything really prepared them for life on terra firma? Because while the planet may be home to billions of people, living there is more treacherous than Leo and his friends could ever have imagined, and their very survival will mean defying impossible odds.

Look Both Ways

Author: Jason Reynolds
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1481438298
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
"A collection of ten short stories that all take place in the same day about kids walking home from school"--