Mark Haddon is a writer and illustrator of several
Award-winning children's books and television screenplays.
As a young man, Haddon worked with autistic individuals. This gave him the opportunity to understand the minds of children with autism.
Mark Haddon’s book begins with a 15-year-old autistic boy named Christopher Boone, who stumbles over the body of his neighbour’s dog, Wellington, impaled with a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing.
Christopher knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. However he is incredibly talented in math and is studying for his A levels. Christopher is the first to take A level maths in his school. He also hates to be touched, won’t touch the colours brown and yellow, and refuses to eat his foods if they are touching.
Christopher then decides that he will track down the real killer and turns to his favourite fictional character, Sherlock Holmes, for inspiration and will write a book about it for his school homework.
I love this book; this is one of my most favourite books I’ve ever read. I would give this book a four out of five star rating because it is so gripping and you just want to read on and it’s fun to read. It’s funny when he says “Terry, who is the older brother of Francis, who is at school, said I would only get a job collecting supermarket trolleys or cleaning out donkey shit at an animal sanctuary and they didn’t let spazzers drive rockets that cost billions of pounds.”. Also I like that it has a twist in the story and cliff-hangers wanting you to keep reading.
“EXCEPTIONAL by any standards...”
Sunday telegraph
“Superbly realised…
A funny book as well as a sad book...
BRILLIANT”
Guardian
By JW Yr9
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean
“The only happy thing was that Sym (your main character)didn't die. The only good thing about this book is that you can't guess what on earth's going to happen next.” Amazon book reviews- Liz (SA!)
Carnegie award winning author and three times Whitbread Children’s Book Award, Geraldine McCaughrean, has produced an interesting novel based on the story of Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates, a nineteenth century explorer. The story is set mostly in the heart of Antarctica, the first person account of emotions channelled by a fourteen year old Symone Wates. Symone (Sym) is not very popular at school and has an “imaginary” friend in Captain Oates- or Titus as she prefers to call him. Her love life is non-existent and her one friend is in her own world of girly magazines.
A plot begins in which the reasons for certain events become clear throughout the story line. Symone has an “uncle”, or rather a friend of her father’s who she believes is a trustworthy and highly intelligent man. Her reasons for believing in him and his wisdom so strongly, she thinks are linked to her father’s feelings towards her. Spread out through the story are emotional feelings towards her father’s disregard for her feelings and interests, along with a few minor comments to certain mind games that are brought up by her Uncle Victor to improve her own outlook on life and an episode before the untimely event of her father’s passing when she is forgotten completely by him and he is enraged by her presence in his house. This came as a hook in the story of his mental health.
When her uncle suggests a trip to Paris and then a following visit to Antarctica, a place which she has become enticed by, and her mother is accidentally left behind, dark secrets become unveiled, strange quests for the centre of the world surface and emotions bubble, bringing the story to a tightened climax. Antarctica holds many new experiences and sinister ideas for the 14year old school girl.
Focusing mainly on the first part of “White Darkness”, you notice that the main aspect of the story is highlighted as Sym’s love for Titus, a 125 year old “ghost”, who died in 1912, at the age of 32, this is linked in with his significance and her “classmate’s” reactions to her “pretend friend”. This part is a part that most students can identify with, being an outsider within a group of people in school. The focus varies a lot during the beginning however does not ruin the overall effect of the story opening. Emotions run high in this opening, which adds to the small hook at the beginning of the story. She feels as if Titus is her soul mate and the taunts from the more “popular” girls in school made her believe in him even more, he was all she needed. I believe that this was true to life and showed that even the slightest things can set off stress, which is what may have caused her imagination to run wild in the first place. One harsh point that I did notice that was cold hearted and malicious was the comment that made her close in in the first place, after her father died, when Maxine said to Nats, “’ Don’t worry. I expect she just imagined it.’” Nevertheless, this was a god technique as it created sympathy for the main character and set the opinions in the reader’s mind that should have carried on throughout the book.
There are numerous ways of perceiving the main character. Is she a lonely child who just needs someone to talk to, someone who understands her? Has she merely been corrupted by her “uncle”, the man she believed really cared about her and her father, and felt that with the knowledge passed onto her from him could- in reality- create a friend for her? Or, is she simply mad? Of course, my explanation is that an imaginary friend has simply taken it’s time developing and, following the death of her father, she needed help from someone who, because he had all of her “under the surface emotions” , could tell her how she really felt. Although I did feel that Liz’s, from Amazon, comment before my own review wasn’t exactly right as I like to want to guess what will happen next but it wasn’t that interesting and Sym getting in a bit more trouble may have made that little bit more interesting.
Disregarding the main character’s occasional funny parts, for example: “We settled on killing Uncle Victor by brute force. With an ice axe.” She follows to almost plea for sympathy from the reader, “(I should say, in our defence, that we were very, very scared)”, this book, I felt, didn’t really hook me after I began to read it. The phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” springs to mind as I write this next comment as, you can probably guess, I did indeed do just that. The simple faces on the front and back cover of the book, partnered with the cold colours and intricate swirled patterns convinced me to pick up the book and read the blurb on the inside. I guess it is better to take a book and be let down than to avoid a book that looks dull and find out that you have missed out on something good because, at the end of the day, at least you’ve attempted it.
I felt that the hooks were few and far apart, and the storyline became less interesting as I read along. I believe that this book was not so awful that no- one should ever even consider reading it, however it is not a book that I would read again. With the serious and almost never ending plot, this book reminded me of a soap as it carried out the Uncle’s secret for too long and anyone in their right mind would have realised that something was not quite right in the first place. All I can say is that I hope that because of the ending being left open for questions, that wont mean a sequel.
Due to the lack of interest the storyline conjured up in my mind, however still remembering the occasional high points, I would give this book a two star rating and would only recommend this to someone who would read anything and everything.
YJL Yr9
Carnegie award winning author and three times Whitbread Children’s Book Award, Geraldine McCaughrean, has produced an interesting novel based on the story of Captain Lawrence Edward Grace Oates, a nineteenth century explorer. The story is set mostly in the heart of Antarctica, the first person account of emotions channelled by a fourteen year old Symone Wates. Symone (Sym) is not very popular at school and has an “imaginary” friend in Captain Oates- or Titus as she prefers to call him. Her love life is non-existent and her one friend is in her own world of girly magazines.
A plot begins in which the reasons for certain events become clear throughout the story line. Symone has an “uncle”, or rather a friend of her father’s who she believes is a trustworthy and highly intelligent man. Her reasons for believing in him and his wisdom so strongly, she thinks are linked to her father’s feelings towards her. Spread out through the story are emotional feelings towards her father’s disregard for her feelings and interests, along with a few minor comments to certain mind games that are brought up by her Uncle Victor to improve her own outlook on life and an episode before the untimely event of her father’s passing when she is forgotten completely by him and he is enraged by her presence in his house. This came as a hook in the story of his mental health.
When her uncle suggests a trip to Paris and then a following visit to Antarctica, a place which she has become enticed by, and her mother is accidentally left behind, dark secrets become unveiled, strange quests for the centre of the world surface and emotions bubble, bringing the story to a tightened climax. Antarctica holds many new experiences and sinister ideas for the 14year old school girl.
Focusing mainly on the first part of “White Darkness”, you notice that the main aspect of the story is highlighted as Sym’s love for Titus, a 125 year old “ghost”, who died in 1912, at the age of 32, this is linked in with his significance and her “classmate’s” reactions to her “pretend friend”. This part is a part that most students can identify with, being an outsider within a group of people in school. The focus varies a lot during the beginning however does not ruin the overall effect of the story opening. Emotions run high in this opening, which adds to the small hook at the beginning of the story. She feels as if Titus is her soul mate and the taunts from the more “popular” girls in school made her believe in him even more, he was all she needed. I believe that this was true to life and showed that even the slightest things can set off stress, which is what may have caused her imagination to run wild in the first place. One harsh point that I did notice that was cold hearted and malicious was the comment that made her close in in the first place, after her father died, when Maxine said to Nats, “’ Don’t worry. I expect she just imagined it.’” Nevertheless, this was a god technique as it created sympathy for the main character and set the opinions in the reader’s mind that should have carried on throughout the book.
There are numerous ways of perceiving the main character. Is she a lonely child who just needs someone to talk to, someone who understands her? Has she merely been corrupted by her “uncle”, the man she believed really cared about her and her father, and felt that with the knowledge passed onto her from him could- in reality- create a friend for her? Or, is she simply mad? Of course, my explanation is that an imaginary friend has simply taken it’s time developing and, following the death of her father, she needed help from someone who, because he had all of her “under the surface emotions” , could tell her how she really felt. Although I did feel that Liz’s, from Amazon, comment before my own review wasn’t exactly right as I like to want to guess what will happen next but it wasn’t that interesting and Sym getting in a bit more trouble may have made that little bit more interesting.
Disregarding the main character’s occasional funny parts, for example: “We settled on killing Uncle Victor by brute force. With an ice axe.” She follows to almost plea for sympathy from the reader, “(I should say, in our defence, that we were very, very scared)”, this book, I felt, didn’t really hook me after I began to read it. The phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” springs to mind as I write this next comment as, you can probably guess, I did indeed do just that. The simple faces on the front and back cover of the book, partnered with the cold colours and intricate swirled patterns convinced me to pick up the book and read the blurb on the inside. I guess it is better to take a book and be let down than to avoid a book that looks dull and find out that you have missed out on something good because, at the end of the day, at least you’ve attempted it.
I felt that the hooks were few and far apart, and the storyline became less interesting as I read along. I believe that this book was not so awful that no- one should ever even consider reading it, however it is not a book that I would read again. With the serious and almost never ending plot, this book reminded me of a soap as it carried out the Uncle’s secret for too long and anyone in their right mind would have realised that something was not quite right in the first place. All I can say is that I hope that because of the ending being left open for questions, that wont mean a sequel.
Due to the lack of interest the storyline conjured up in my mind, however still remembering the occasional high points, I would give this book a two star rating and would only recommend this to someone who would read anything and everything.
YJL Yr9
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
‘Al Capone Does My Shirts’ is the story of a twelve year old boy, called Mathew (Moose) Flanagan, who’s just moved to the island of Alcatraz, because his Dad’s just got a job as an electrician and prison guard there. Not only does he then have to get to grips with his knew school and trying to find new friends, but also he has to help his family look after his 15 year old sister, Natalie, who has Autism, which at the time hadn’t been discovered, as he is the only one of the family that seems to be able to connect with her.
Throughout the story, Natalie is trying to get into Esther P. Marinoff School; however the experts say that she isn’t ready to go there. No-one really knows how to deal with Natalie, as Autism hadn’t been recognised at that time, and the only thing that seems to calm her down are her box of buttons and numbers. As a result of no-one knowing how to deal with her, Moose and his mum get into a lot of rows about what to do, which causes tension in the family.
But even though life in this story for Moose may be difficult, he looks at life in a positive way and tries his best. He can handle situations well, and seems to know how to handle his sister far better than his other family members, which is proven when only he is able to get her off the boat, by reading the indexes of a book incorrectly, as he knows she will correct him. He also knows how to deal with the people who don’t know what to make of Natalie. He sticks up for her, and looks after her like a loving brother would, which is one of the main reasons this story is so believable. He uses her flair for numbers to prove that although she may have Autism, she is not as stupid as Piper, one of Moose’s school friends, thinks she is.
Al Capone, an inmate in the Alcatraz prison, may not be featured as much as you would think he would be, in a story with a title based on him, however there is an element of curiosity throughout the story, from both the readers and the characters, or who and what Al Capone is really like. Although he is not a main character, he does play a large part in the story, especially in getting Natalie into Esther P. Marinoff School. In the final part of the story, he becomes a main part of the plot, however the only word throughout the story that is from him, is the word “Done”.
Although this story may not have a real plot, what makes it a great book is the fact that Moose, the main character, is so likeable and realistic. He looks at life with a positive frame of mind and makes the most of what he’s got, even when he’s put into situations he’d rather not be in. Teenage readers can really relate to him, and the way he acts towards his sister leaves you with a “rich and heart-warming” impression of the book.
SM Yr9
Throughout the story, Natalie is trying to get into Esther P. Marinoff School; however the experts say that she isn’t ready to go there. No-one really knows how to deal with Natalie, as Autism hadn’t been recognised at that time, and the only thing that seems to calm her down are her box of buttons and numbers. As a result of no-one knowing how to deal with her, Moose and his mum get into a lot of rows about what to do, which causes tension in the family.
But even though life in this story for Moose may be difficult, he looks at life in a positive way and tries his best. He can handle situations well, and seems to know how to handle his sister far better than his other family members, which is proven when only he is able to get her off the boat, by reading the indexes of a book incorrectly, as he knows she will correct him. He also knows how to deal with the people who don’t know what to make of Natalie. He sticks up for her, and looks after her like a loving brother would, which is one of the main reasons this story is so believable. He uses her flair for numbers to prove that although she may have Autism, she is not as stupid as Piper, one of Moose’s school friends, thinks she is.
Al Capone, an inmate in the Alcatraz prison, may not be featured as much as you would think he would be, in a story with a title based on him, however there is an element of curiosity throughout the story, from both the readers and the characters, or who and what Al Capone is really like. Although he is not a main character, he does play a large part in the story, especially in getting Natalie into Esther P. Marinoff School. In the final part of the story, he becomes a main part of the plot, however the only word throughout the story that is from him, is the word “Done”.
Although this story may not have a real plot, what makes it a great book is the fact that Moose, the main character, is so likeable and realistic. He looks at life with a positive frame of mind and makes the most of what he’s got, even when he’s put into situations he’d rather not be in. Teenage readers can really relate to him, and the way he acts towards his sister leaves you with a “rich and heart-warming” impression of the book.
SM Yr9
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