I very much enjoyed reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, a story about a boy, Christopher, who has what is believed to be Asberger syndrome--a type of autism--and his original goal to find out who killed Wellington and, later on, his long adventure to London to be with his mother after finding out that his father lied to him and killed the dog. When Professor Bérubé told us closer to the beginning of the semester that his son, Jamie, has Down syndrome but has other abilities like awesome memory and an uncanny knowledge of sharks, I was intrigued. While I have been around teens with disabilities through the St. Anthony's program in my high school, I guess you could say that I never realized that despite the disability, these kids have such talent in other areas. I was reminded of Jamie while reading this entire book. Despite Christopher's "high-functioning autism," he is totally brilliant--or at least seems that way to someone like me who has no grasp of the mathematical world whatsoever. The fact that he can beat Minesweeper--I computer game that I don't even understand--in 99 seconds and his method to calm himself down by solving quadratic equations in his head is mind-blowing. I can't even solve them with a calculator. The puzzle with all the little boxes that he had to move around (once again, in his head) that he did while in the train station before the police officer helped him get a ticket to London really made me really why he likes mysteries so much, and just puzzles in general, like math...which is a puzzle to me in itself. There were times throughout the book where, I have to say, I got a little
