Introduction

Welcome to my blog. My name Is Sean Perry. I have an identical twin brother named Vince. I am a freshman at The John Carroll School, which is located in Maryland. The sports I play are football, soccer, basketball, baseball, and rugby. In my free time I love to play the guitar and the keyboard.

The project that I am doing is based off Mark Haddon’s novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. In the story, the main character Christopher is autistic. Christopher is writing the story about his life, and the events that are taking place. The story begins when Christopher finds his neighbor’s dog impaled on a garden fork. Christopher wants to figure out who murdered Wellington, and not only does he resolve the mystery, he finds and resolves another mystery that involves his own personal life. The social issue in this novel is autism. I selected autism since Christopher is autistic. The plot of the story is a success because Christopher is autistic. Without him being autistic, the plot of the story would have been dull. Autism is a very severe mental disorder that is affecting many more Americans now than it ever has. Many people do not take autism as a serious mental illness when it is the third most common mental disability. To gather information about autism, I went to many different databases to find facts. On each research databases, I found many different facts plus one or two quotes right out of the article. I put these facts and quotes down on note cards, along with the source citation. In all, I created five different note cards.

The first category of my blog is the novel pen pal letter. I wrote a friendly letter to the main character of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Christopher. The next category is a book review I wrote about Mark Haddon’s novel. The review is just an overview of the book, and my opinion on the book. The third category is an author biography. I state many facts about Mark Haddon throughout the biography. The next category is an issue statement. In the issue statement, I asked three questions that I wanted to figure out the answers to throughout this research project. The last five categories are note cards that I created from research on autism. I took research from databases including Infotrac, Sirs, and Grolier. After finding facts and a quote from an article, I put them on a note card along with the source citation of the article. The categories are in order from top to bottom on my blog with the novel pen pal letter being the first category.

Novel Pen Pal Letter

The John Carroll School
703 Churchville Road
Bel Air, Maryland 21015
September 2, 2008

Dear Christopher,

My name is Sean and I enjoyed reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time over the summer. Besides reading the novel, I went on two different vacations. The first one was to Virginia Beach for a national baseball tournament. My team came in fifth place,
which was good considering the talent of the other teams. The other vacation I took was to Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland. My whole family went and we had a grand time hiking, swimming, and white water rafting.

I think the novel was one of the best books I have ever read. I don’t think it was the best idea for you to punch the policeman when he thought you killed Wellington. You should have let him take you and question you. Also, I think it was not smart to run away from home because your father was the one who killed Wellington. Something horrible could have happened to you when you went out in public by yourself. I liked the way you handled the police officer at the train station though. You were very pleasant and then went and hid from him. Even though that was a bad idea, it worked well for you and you ended up finding your mother in the end anyway.

I liked the author’s writing style as the story unfolded. Since you were writing the story about your life, you kept me in suspense because I never knew what was going to happen. You only talked about the key things that were happening during your life which made every chapter interesting. Every detail that you wrote about was interesting, and you elaborated just enough so I could get a perfect idea of what you were talking about. You seemed very realistic to me as I kept reading. Since I knew from the front flap that you were autistic, every action you made was an action an autistic boy would make. I have had personal experience with autistic children and the way you handled certain situations made you seem just like a real autistic boy.

Why did you think Wellington being killed was such a big deal to begin with Christopher? Also Christopher, why did you keep on trying to figure out who killed Wellington after your father told you not to put your nose into other people’s business? I am proud of you that you went out into the public by yourself even though you dislike the concept of change. You proved to yourself and showed the readers that you can face change. I was also happy for you when your father gave you a dog. I felt that you had deserved it and it would be good for you to have a dog to spend time with.

I can raise awareness about autism by recommending close friends and relatives to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. I might find someone who is autistic and use them as an example to show people about the social issue of autism. I can also create a website and list facts about autistic people to raise awareness. The other social issue is savant syndrome. I can raise awareness about this by sharing stories about people who are savants and showing that even though they are mentally limited, they can still be talented at other things. Again, I could create a website and state facts about savant syndrome to raise awareness about that social issue. I think that The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time will leave me thinking about autistic people and savant syndrome.

I had a good time reading the novel, Christopher, and I think you are a good author. I think next time you should try writing a fictional story since you have such a creative mind. I hope all is well and take care.

Book Review

http://reeyah.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/the_curious_incident.jpg


I find the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time very creative and well-written. The author, Mark Haddon, keeps the reader in suspense throughout the story and teaches the reader about autism and savant syndrome through a fictional boy’s life. Christopher Boone, the main character in the novel, is an autistic 15-year old boy who has unbelievable talent in mathematics. The novel begins with Christopher finding his neighbor’s poodle, Wellington, impaled on a garden fork while Christopher was taking a walk late at night. Christopher decides he will become a detective just like his idol Sherlock Holmes to figure out who killed Wellington. Wellington’s owner, Mrs. Shears, refuses to give Christopher information about the matter and Christopher’s father demands him to stop investigating. As the story continues, another mystery involving Christopher’s mother is unraveling. Christopher’s father told him his mother had died, and Christopher learns surprising information about his mother during his investigation of Wellington’s murderer.

The novel is unconventional in comparison to other books I have read recently. The main character, Christopher, is writing the story about important events happening in the book. The entire story is in first person, while all the other books I have read have been in third person. In the story, Christopher has many superstitions. One of them is if he sees 5 red cars in a row it makes the day a Super Good Day, and if he sees 4 yellow cars in a row it makes the day a black day where Christopher sits in a corner reading all day. Also, Christopher does not like to go out in public to places he has never been before. In the story, Christopher goes to the train station on his own, but he had never been there before. When he gets there, he zones out and does a math problem called Conway’s Soldiers for two and a half hours. Since Christopher is autistic, the events in the story don’t happen the way they would with a main character without autism.

The plot of the story is put together adequately by the author. The novel begins with a conflict, and all the main characters are introduced. Throughout the story, all the events lead up to a climax at the end where most of the reader’s questions are answered as well as the conflict. The author keeps the reader into the book because so much is happening. Each chapter contains a new smaller story inside the novel itself. The reader never knows what is going to happen next since the story is written about Christopher’s life. Mark Haddon describes the characters very well when they are introduced, so the reader gets a full description of who they are. The author includes many different characters to bring out the full plot of the story. Mark Haddon did a good job getting his message across to the reader throughout the novel. The reader can get a good idea of autism and savant syndrome since the whole story is based on an autistic boy who has an extremely logical brain.

In my opinion, I give the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time two thumbs up. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to know how an autistic person lives their life and how they act in real life situations.

Author Biography

http://www.costabookawards.com/images/online/Mark%20Haddon%20c.%20Claire%20McNamee.jpg

Mark Haddon, the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, was born in Northampton, England in 1962. Mark Haddon attended Merton College in Oxford in 1981 for his B.A. In 1984, Haddon received his M.A. at Edinburgh University. Before writing novels, Haddon wrote and illustrated a variety of children’s books, and even some children television shows.

Mark Haddon’s debut novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, is about an autistic boy named Christopher. Before writing the novel, Haddon had worked with autistic children, yet admits to not researching much about autism while he wrote about his fictional character. However, Mark Haddon went on to win the McKitterick Prize and the Whitbread Prize for his debut novel.

Another book Mark Haddon wrote involved a main character who had a problem, which in this case was cancer. Besides that, Mark Haddon created a whole series of children’s books titled the “Agent Z” series. Another popular book that Haddon wrote was The Sea of Tranquility. In this story, he writes about the achievement of human’s first landing on the moon. Mark Haddon said that that was his personal fascination when he was a child. Mark Haddon is mostly known for being the author of various children’s books and novels. However, he even wrote a poetry book titled The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village.

“Works Cited”
Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC Harford County Public Library

Issue Statement

I am going to research the social issue of autism. I will answer three questions throughout my research.

1. What is autism?

2. Does autism have a cure?

3. What percent of children born are autistic?

Notecard #1

Rimland, Bernard. "Autism." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. 16 Sep. 2008 . John Carroll School. <http://go-passport.grolier.com/>.

• Out of all the children diagnosed with autism, 75% of them are boys, while only 25% are girls.
  
• Autism is reported to occur in 45 to 60 out of every 10,000 children born.
  
• 80% of children with autism are also mentally retarded.
  
• There is no true cure for autism; however, there are many treatment programs that can help autistic people.

Direct Quote:

• "Autism is a rare, profound, and poorly understood mental disorer that severely impairs a person's abilities, particularly in the areas of language and social relations."

Notecard #2

"Autism and Vaccines." Issues & Controversies On File. 10 Apr. 2006. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services. The John Carroll School. 16 Sept. 2008. <http://www.2facts.com/>.

• 10% of children with autism have an extraordinary talent in another area (This is because they have savant syndrome).
  
• Autism is diagnosed in the early years of life, before they turn 3 years old.
  
• Epilepsy affects up to 20% of people with autism.
  
• The chance of having another autistic child after giving birth to one already is 5%.

Direct Quotes:

• “Autism is diagnosed by observing the child's behavior, communication skills, and social interactions after medical tests have ruled out other possible causes of autistic symptoms.”

Notecard #3

McGrath, Kimberly and Travers, Bridget. "Autism." World of Scientific Discovery. Ed. Online ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. John Carroll School. 17 Sep. 2008. <http://find.galegroup.com/%3E.

• Autism is caused by a neurological disorder which interferes with normal brain functioning.
  
• Autism is the third most common developmental disability, more common than Down syndrome.
  
• Both twins will have autism if they are identical (because of a 100% gene overlap), while fraternal twins or siblings will half the time (with a 50% gene overlap).
  
• Autism is not a mental illness.
  
• The specific cause of autism is not yet known.

Direct Quote:

• “Biochemically, abnormal levels of serotonin, cerebrospinal fluid, and beta-endorphins have been found in the autistic brain.”

Notecard #4

Rimland, Bernard. "Autism." Encyclopedia Americana. 2008. Grolier Online. 19 Sep. 2008 . The John Carroll School. <http://www.go-grolier.com/>.

• Autism affects people of all races, although the majority of autistic people are caucasian.
• Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder.
• Psychotherapy has no affect on autistic people.
• Certain B vitamins are found to help behavioral problems of autistic people.

Direct Quote:

• "The word autistic, derived from the Greek word for 'self,' is applied to children afflicted with this disorder because their facial expressions and unresponsiveness make them resemble daydreaming, completely self-involved adults."

Notecard #5

Wallis, Claudia. “Inside the Autistic Mind”. SIRS Researcher. May 15, 2006. Time Vol. 167, No. 20. SIRS Knowledge Source. September 19, 2008. John Carroll School. <http://sks.sirs.com/>.

• More than $100 million have been donated in the past decade for research on autism.
• Scientists studying for causes of autism have found spots on chromosomes 2, 5, 7, 11, and 17 that are a factor, but they don’t know how.
• High levels of anxiety are found in up to 80% of people with autism.
• There have been cases where autism receded as the person got older, and almost completely vanished.

Direct Quote:

• “The frontal lobes, home to higher reasoning, are greatly enlarged, due mainly to excess white matter, the brain's connector cables; the cerebellum, like the frontal lobes, is overloaded with white matter; the hippocampus is about 10% larger than normal; the amygdala is also enlarged; and the corpus callosum is undersize.”

The Unknown Truth About the Unknown Mind: The Secrets of Autism

Forty-five to sixty children out of every ten-thousand born are diagnosed with autism. It is typical for people to take their own intelligence for granted. They do not realize that they are gifted with a well-functioning brain, even if they are not the sharpest tool in the shed. Autistic children have to live every day with a brain that does not function properly. In some cases, these unfortunate children cannot even speak. The cause for this serious mental disorder is not known, along with the cure of autism. Autism is not a disorder that should be taken lightly, and despite the inability of autistic brains to function properly, these individuals still desire the same lifestyle as everyone else.

Autism is a pervasive development disorder that has many unique characteristics. Autism is not a mental illness. The true definition for autism is “a rare, profound, and poorly understood mental disorder that severely impairs a person’s abilities, particularly in the areas of language and social relations” (Rimland, par. 1). Autism is a disorder that affects all races, so anyone has a risk of having an autistic child. Most people do not realize it, but autism is the third most common development disability, more common than Down syndrome. “Autism is diagnosed by observing the child’s behavior, communication skills, and social interactions after medical tests have ruled out other possible causes of autistic symptoms” (World of Health, par. 10). “The word autistic, derived from the Greek word for ‘self’, is applied to children afflicted with this disorder because their facial expressions and unresponsiveness make them resemble daydreaming, completely self-involved adults” (World of Health, par. 5). Most people do not realize how serious of a development disorder autism is, and they do not understand what exactly it is.

The true cause of how children are born autistic is not discovered, however, there are many possibilities. Scientists have discovered many leads on what the true cause of autism is. They know autism is caused by a neurological disorder that interferes with normal brain functioning which interferes with normal brain functioning. They do not know how or why the brain is not functioning properly. Scientists researching the brain found spots on chromosomes 2,5,7,11, and 17. This may or may not be a factor to the cause. There are many odd differences between a normal brain and an autistic brain. “The frontal lobes, home to higher reasoning, are greatly enlarged, due mainly to excess white matter, the brain's connector cables; the cerebellum, like the frontal lobes, is overloaded with white matter; the hippocampus is about 10% larger than normal; the amygdala is also enlarged; and the corpus callosum is undersize” (Wallis, par. 28). “Biochemically, abnormal levels of serotonin, cerebrospinal fluid, and beta-endorphins have been found in the autistic brain” ( McGrath and Travers, par. 4). Autistic children are becoming more common in births, and without scientists knowing what the cause of autism is, autism cannot be prevented.

There are many interesting statistics and facts about autism that Americans are probably not aware of. Autism is diagnosed in the early years of life, before children turn 3 years old. Out of all the children diagnosed with autism, 75% of them are boys, while only 25% are girls. “In a family with one autistic child, the chance of having another child with autism is about 1 in 20, much higher than in the normal population” (World of Health, par. 3). 80% of children with autism are also mentally retarded. 10% of these children have an extraordinary talent in another area such as math or music. 80% of autistic people have high levels of anxiety found in them. Epilepsy affects 20% of the people with autism. Autism is a more severe disorder than people think it is with all these other effects that autism has on people.

Americans do not realize that once you are diagnosed with autism, your life will not be normal for as long as you live. There is no cure for autism that scientists have discovered yet. There are many treatment programs in the United States that help autistic people become more independent. Scientists have discovered that psychotherapy has little or no affect on autistic people. Scientists are looking for a way to stop other affects that autism has on people, but for the most part their search has been fruitless. Certain B vitamins were tested on autistic people and the vitamins seemed to help behavioral problems. In rare cases, the effects of autism receded as the person aged and almost completely vanished. Autism is a life-long syndrome that can’t be cured, but autistic people can lead more normal lives with special therapy and treatment.

Autism is not the kind of disorder that should be taken lightly throughout the United States. Scientists are still searching for the cause, so Americans need to help support Autism research. Awareness needs to be raised about autism, so more people can support this cause. “More than 100 million dollars have been donated in the past decade for research on autism” (Claudia Wallis, par. 13). If people keep supporting autism research, information that can reduce autism or cure it will be found. It is very imperative for people to find solutions to problems. If the problems are not solved, then the future generations will have the same problems. Then, the generation after them will have the same problem. It is not fair for autistic people to be deprived of the opportunity to have the same normal life they yearn for when normal Americans are not aware of how severe of a disorder autism is.

Works Cited
"Autism and Vaccines." Issues & Controversies On File. 10 Apr. 2006. Issues & Controversies.
Facts On File News Services. The John Carroll School. 16 Sept. 2008. <http://www.2facts.com/>.
McGrath, Kimberly and Travers, Bridget. "Autism." World of Scientific Discovery. Ed. Online
ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. Student Resource Center - Gold. Gale. John Carroll School. 17 Sep. 2008. <http://find.galegroup.com/%3E.
Rimland, Bernard. "Autism." Encyclopedia Americana. 2008. Grolier Online. 19 Sep. 2008 . The
John Carroll School. <http://www.go-grolier.com/>.
Rimland, Bernard. "Autism." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. 16 Sep.
2008 . John Carroll School. <http://go-passport.grolier.com/>.
Wallis, Claudia. “Inside the Autistic Mind”. May 15, 2006. Time Vol. 167, No. 20. SIRS
Researcher. SIRS Knowledge Source. September 19, 2008. John Carroll School. <http://sks.sirs.com/>.

Wildcard