The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Summary

This story is about a 15 year old boy, whose name is Christopher, with Asperger’s syndrome and his struggles in life. 

The dog was dead. It looked like it was running but it was most definitely dead. The dog was impaled by a pitchfork, it went through the body and in to the ground . Christopher kneeled before the poor little canine and stroked it. The dog’s name was Wellington. He liked Wellington’s pale yellow skin. He liked dogs in general. Christopher pulled out the pitchfork and noticed that the canine was still bleeding, but he hugged him anyways. Christopher liked dogs because of the simplicity and their primitive thoughts and feelings, they are pretty predictable and faithful too. The boy’s thoughts were interrupted by Mrs Shears. She just shouted and shouted. Why this and why that. He finally let the dog go and backed up a bit to let her have a private moment with her former pet. Until the police arrived. Christopher liked the police as well, they always have a strict duty. A policewoman led Mrs Shears inside and the other one, the policeman, interrogated Christopher. Christopher didn’t like this, he tried to show respect but the questions were hard to answer. The policeman mistakenly accused the boy of killing Wellington, which Christopher didn’t like. The questions were overwhelming, so he decided to push his forehead against the ground, and groan. This tactic didn’t really succeed. It ended with the policeman lifting Christopher, which he disliked even more. And this is when he hit him. 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - DL & CC

Questions ’n stuff

1. (Blue hat) Why did the parents/guardians send the children specifically to that house? Why that one?
2. (Red hat) What did they think of the old professor? Did they have mixed opinions?
3. (White/Blue) What precluded them from exploring the woods? What did they do instead?
4. (Green ha) What could they do instead?
5. (White hat)How big was the inside of the wardrobe that caught Lucy’s attention?
6. (Yellow hat)What was she greeted with on the other side?

Creative Connector

A scene that I can connect, to an actual experience I had, is the part where the children start to explore this huge and rather intimidating house. I remember, as I was younger, when I explored my godfather’s huge strange house. No, I didn’t really discover a new world on the other side of a closet, but the feeling of exploring and finding peculiar stuff here and there was pretty fun. I chose this experience not only because of the resemblance but also the feeling of nostalgia that really hit me whilst reading the text. 

Character Tracer - Gift Mlungu

I’m going to describe a 17 year old boy called Gift Mlungu. A part from his awe-inspiring surname he is also an incredibly fast sprinter, that’s why he possesses the nickname ”gudji-gudji”. This nickname comes from a flat spider with long legs that is as fast as lightning. Gift is fairly tall and slender, but also proud, as the protagonist puts it in the text. She also describes him as if he looked like a Zulu even if it isn’t his native tribe. That means, according to my conclusion, that Zulu’s are presumably tall and slender... which should be pretty obvious at this point. Gracie, the girls friend, also implies that Gift is handsome and sweet, as does the protagonist (what’s her name!?). In the end it turns out that he’s ’engaged’ to Sunni, an Indian girl, which the protagonist couldn’t even handle with moderate ease; frankly, she got pretty shocked. 

Hunger - Brief Summary

Little Richard nagged about his immediate need for food. He was starving. Mama then explained that they didn’t have any food, and if he wanted something to eat he had to wait for papa to arrive with nourishment for the family. Little Richard was not satisfied with this answer. 

The days passed and the only food little Richard ate daily was a loaf of bread and a cup of tea that he shared with his brother. Mama was absent almost all day but at least her wage could provide some food for them to eat. Because papa never came, and was now long gone, meant that the task of shopping for food was given to little Richard. The only problem being the bullies, who always beat up little Richard on the way to the store. This was put to an end after mama gave little Richard a stick, which he then avenged the bullies with and finally became national hero of Memphis. 

Baby's Ears - DL and CC

Q&A thingy (without A’s)

1. (Red hat) Why is mom worried about grandma?
2. (Black hat) Why doesn’t mom want her to go back to N.Y.?
3. (White hat & Green hat) How does the main protagonist (Val) make grandma like Florida and prevent her to go back? Are there any other methods?
4. (Blue hat) Why is grandma afraid of the water?
5. (Yellow hat & blue hat)What happens in the end, did Val’s method prove to be successful? 

Creative Connector

The part in this book that I will connect to my own experience is the scene where Val and her grandma go to the beach - in search of sea shells - because it takes place in Florida, and the beach (I’d guess Miami Beach) where I once was with my family. My memory is a bit hazy, but I remember that I was really hyped because of the fact that the Miami Beach is really famous. It turned out to be another large mediocre beach. Basically pretty underwhelming. Neither did I collect any rare and fine sea shells, so the connection ends there. 

I chose my experience to connect it with this part of the story because Miami Beach is the first thing that comes to mind, even if these two events don’t share much resemblance. 

Book Circle - Summarizer and Character tracer

Summary

...After they played ”Who am I” Julia gave TJ a letter written in braille that he obviously didn’t understood because he couldn’t read braille. 

He found out that it was a question and said the he will respond later. So he went to the library to find out what it said.

The letter was an invitation for a dinner with Julia. He rode his bike immediately to the  train station due to the letter saying that he must be at the italian restaurant at seven o’clock.

Unfortunately, he was there too late, so he used his bike instead of the train.

The dinner went pretty good. Julia even asked him if he wanted to go bowling at Saturday, but they postponed it because TJ’s friends would be there at Saturday, it could cause a lot of trouble for him if he didn’t postpone it...

So the next Sunday they played and everything went well, TJ also got to know Julia’s friend Eddie. 

That day ended with that TJ didn’t need to pretend to be blind anymore, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Character Trace

Julia

Julia is a girl with black hair and a beautiful smile. She is also very nice and helpful because she helped TJ when he was ”blind”, for example when they went swimming and bowling. She’s also very smart because she knows a lot about blindness and blind people, she even wrote a letter in braille. 

Julia also is kind of playful and sort of mean as she knew that TJ was sighted almost from the beginning when they met but didn’t tell him, so she let him pretend to be blind all the time, even when it wasn’t needed. 

Book Circle - Discussion leader and illustrator

1. Why does TJ pretend to be blind?

2. What’s bad about him pretending to be blind?

3. What’s good about him pretending to be blind?

4. What could he do instead?

5. With whom did he fall in love with?

This picture is inspired by a scene from the book where TJ and Julia are bowling.

Book Circle - Word finder

Wordlist:

Resolution - Upplösning eller beslut 

Shrug - axelryckning

Declarations - deklarationer

Gaze - stirra

Pavement - trottoar

Acorn - ekollon

Cane - käpp

Chip - passning (när man passar en boll med foten)

Shuffle - hasa eller gå långsamt

Sighted - en som kan se

Handkerchief - näsduk

We made our resolution and you should obey it!

She shrugged because she didn’t know the answer.

Remember her important declaration and you will be happy for the rest of your life...

He shuffled down the pavement because he was tired after a long day of work. 

That bird gazed at me awkwardly, how weird...

Ouch, an acorn just hit me in the head... stupid tree.

Old people use canes so they can walk properly.

Hey! Chip the ball to me!

I’m lucky that I didn’t lose my sight, or my life... 

He sat down on the bench, started crying and blew his nose in his handkerchief.

Draw lines between the words

Resolution                                     Axelryckning

Cane                                         En som kan se

Pavement                                             Näsduk

Sighted                                                 Ekollon

Shuffle                                                  Trottoar

Handkerchief                                     Passning

Acorn                                                      Hasa

Shrug                                             Upplösning

 Declarations                                            Käpp

Chip                                                        Stirra

                                     Gaze                                             Deklaration