Mark Haddon Wins The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2003. 6th October 2003.

Mark Haddon has taken top honours in The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize for the "engaging, original and life-changing" The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

"In Mark Haddon's hands, Christopher's story is compassionate without being sentimental. By seeing things through Christopher's eyes, Haddon tests much that we so easily take for granted. The result is that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time more than fulfils the promise of its splendidly intriguing title and makes itself a captivating winner of the Guardian children's fiction prize."

Julia Eccleshare, chair of judges and children's books editor of the Guardian.

Annotation from Peters Stockfinder follows,

"A 15 year old autistic boy goes in search of a local pet dog's killer and writes a book about the process.
On my way to school I watch the cars going past the bus and remember their colours.
3 red cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Quite Good Day. 4 red cars mean that it is going to be a Good Day. 5 red cars mean that it is going to be a Super Good Day. And 4 yellow cars in a row mean that it is going to be a Black Day, which is a day when I don't speak to anyone and don't eat my lunch and Take No Risks, because yellow is the colour of custard and double yellow lines and Yellow Fever which is a deadly disease.
Fifteen-year-old Christopher has a photographic memory. He understands maths. He understands science. What he can't understand are other human beings.
When he finds his neighbour's dog, Wellington lying dead on a neighbour's lawn, he decides to track down the killer and write a murder mystery novel about it. In doing so, however, he uncovers other mysteries that threaten to bring his whole world crashing down around him.
NOTE: Christopher has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism.
NOTE: The swearing is quite prolific. However the 'murder' of the dog with a garden fork takes place off the page."

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