The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Author: Mark Haddon

Publisher: Scoresby, Victoria: Random House Australia, 2004

Annotation:

This unconventional murder mystery novel is written in first-person unreliable narrative of Christopher Boone, a 15-year-old autistic guru with intelligence and passion of mathematics and space with a huge social fear and phobia of anything happening outside of his daily routine. Prime numbers are used as chapter numbers with visual representations and an appendix of proving complex mathematical formulas. The writing style and tone is bittersweet and moving, which gives an insight in Christopher’s thinking and mind. The storyline is character-driven where Christopher discovered the dead body of the neighbour’s poodle Wellington and decides to be the detective in the style of his favourite Sherlock Holmes. He embarks the journey by going through number of things outside his routine and comfort zone. He discovers family secrets and revelations about his mother, as he lived with dad as single parent thinking his mum had passed away.

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The way it hurts

Author:            Patty Blount

Publisher:        Napperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks Fire, 2017

Annotation:

Music is everything for guitarist Elijah’s life, which tells a realistic story about his rock band playing that he can do anything to be successful and get a big break. He cares for his sister Anna, who has autism, that he prioritises. Elijah meets actress Kristen at a high school musical production of Cats and he could not get his eyes off her. He invited her to lead sing with the band, as it would make the band more famous for fans. However, social media response turned negative with physical threats and cyberbullying which impacted on Kristen. Not only it impacts on her, but the fan behaviour does impact on Anna too which Elijah wakes up to this. The storyline is character-driven with the tone of high-drama.

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Kids like us

Author: Hilary Reyl

Publisher: Melbourne, Victoria: The Text Publishing Company, 2017

Annotation:

This realistic and teenage romance fiction novel is a first-person narrative of a teenage boy name Martin, 16, on the high-functioning autism spectrum. The book chapters are not followed by conventional numbers, instead it is followed by date and timestamp. The tone is moving with writing style very thoughtful. Martin leaves from hometown to France with his mother and older sister for the summer, where he attends a local high school’s summer program. He has a crush on a girl who he thinks of a real-life character in his favourite book by the French author Marcel Proust. He figures out how to fall in love with overcoming challenges to his own perception and social interaction.

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Sorta like a rockstar

Author: Matthew Quick

Publisher: London: Headline, 2013

Annotation:

Having good faith and hope is what everyone would like to have and achieve in their life. For Amber Appleton, a seventeen-year-old girl with autism, she proclaims as “an inspiration, a rockstar - of hope”. She is homeless and lives in a school bus with her alcoholic and unfit mother - difficult circumstances and hardship. She has a best friend who is a loyal rescue dog name Bobby Big Boy - 100% cute. Amber’s optimism is described throughout the story; regularly teaches English to Korean Catholic women through music, visits elderly at nursing home and befriends a solitary Vietnam veteran. When a tragedy hits, Amber falls into depression where is unable to cope, feels blank and things are harder than thought possible.

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Colin Fischer

Author: Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz

Publisher: London: Puffin, 2013

Annotation:

“Colin Fischer doesn’t like to be touched. Or the colour blue. He avoids eye contact unless absolutely necessary” (blurb from back cover).

This book novel tells a story of a 14-year-old boy who lives with Asperger’s syndrome. Highly intelligent but struggles with social interactions and emotions. Every chapter starts with an extract from Colin’s diary, which gives a fact about and thought process of some with Asperger’s. At school, he deals with constant bullying and seen as an outcast. One lunchtime a gun went off in the cafeteria - a crime mystery established. Colin was not scared of the event and went straight into investigating by proving with true facts to who did it.

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