By finishing this book, I completed 1 challenge, and a step up ahead for 2 others! An important book :)

So the story starts when Christopher, a 15 year old boy with autism finds his neighbor’s dog dies. Everything is written from first person point of view, which makes it interesting, because you get to know the way Christopher sees everything, which is of course, different with normal people.

I’m kinda surprised that it won Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize because in my opinion, it’s nothing close to being kiddie, with the swearing and all (I think they’re good at showing how frustrated the people around him can be). The topic is pretty heavy and even though some people say it’s a funny book, I found it pretty sad.

I like the book. It’s different. I like Christopher and I don’t like him. I could feel his pain and was frustrated about him too. Often, I took pity on him, and it made me think of everybody else in this world who just doesn’t fit into what is considered “normal”.

I laughed seeing his list of Behavioral Problems (that was pointed out by other people, of course) includes Not Smiling. Funny how it’s true. Even a small thing like that.

I love how he uses prime numbers for chapter numbers. That’s the very first thing I noticed when I opened the book. I flipped the book back and forth, confused why it starts from 2, 3, then 5, and so on (It’s explained early on in the book). I remember that in primary school I was also fascinated by prime numbers. Although for me I only memorized prime numbers between 1 to 100.

Pages: 272
Rating: 4 out of 5 [Very good]

Awards
2003 Whitbread Book of the Year
2004 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book
2003 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize

First line
It was 7 minutes after midnight.

Last line
And I know I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.