Discussing the title

The English title of the book is “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, the German one, however, is “Supergute Tage oder Die sonderbare Welt des Christopher Boone”. Decide for yourself which title you prefer (i.e. which one convinces you most, now that you know what happens in the book). Find arguments that support your opinion. Write an argumentative statement of roughly 150 words.


The German title of the book “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time“ is “Supergute Tage oder Die sonderbare Welt des Christopher Boone”. I like both titles because both tell us something about a part of the book but not the entire story. The English title causes more tension and curiosity for what is in the book, whereas the German one really sounds like a title of a children’s story. So if I saw the German version of the book in a bookstore I would not even touch it for the reason that I am not really interested in books for children. That means it would sure be a disadvantage for the number of sales which is a pity because I like the novel about Christopher Boone and others – even adults –would also. Maybe it had been better to translate exactly the English title into German.

(by Ly)


I would prefer the German title “Supergute Tage oder Die sonderbare Welt des Christopher Boone“, because it looks very interesting and special. I think the people think about this title and speak about it and so it is a vocal advertising from mouth to mouth. What the title says, predicts a special and a subnormal content of the story. The title speaks directly to the reader and forces him to get more information about the book. The English one is not so good, because I think the main role of Christopher Boone is put in the background.

The special world of Christopher Boone, that is the translation of the second part of the German title and I think Christopher sees our world in a special view, because of his Asperger-Syndrome and so the title is right for the content. So I think the German title is the best title.

(by Alexander)


I would prefer the English title. I think it sounds much more interesting. The German one - “Supergute Tage oder Die sonderbare Welt des Christopher Boone” would not make me interested in reading the book. It is too boring and it sounds similar to the title “Die zauberhafte Welt der Amelie” which is a film I do not like. Furthermore, I would say that the German title does not refer to the book really well. “Supergute Tage” is meant to advert to the aspect of having a super good day if you see several red cars in a row but this is not relevant for the story. Besides I do not like that the German title consists of two parts and each of them could be a complete title. I like that the English title “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time” refers to the story that the main character Christopher actually meant to write, even this was not the main idea of the book All in all I can say that the English title sounds better and refers more to the book.


(by Moritz)
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Our Reading Diary (part 4)

In the lessons on Tuesday, March 16th we were handling imaginative worlds. First we had to think about how a perfect world would be to us. We should imagine what we could see, hear, taste, smell and touch in our ideal world. Furthermore, we compared our worlds with the ones of our class mates. We recognized a lot of similarities, e.g. most of us thought about being at the beach, lying underneath a palm tree. But there were some differences, too. For example in what kind of food we would like to taste. Later we started to work on the book. So we compared 'our ideal world' to the one of Christopher. The task was to make a list of what they have in common and what is different. To me it was a bit surprising that I found even more than one similarity because this boy is the complete opposite of me. We have in common that in our perfect world we would be totally free and could do whatever we wanted and go were ever we wanted, even though our plans how to become that free are quite different (he wants nearly all people to die).Further, we checked out what Christopher's fantasy world can show us about his character. We found out that he does not really likes social contacts because he wants to be nearly alone in his world. Then we got a worksheet about the thoughts of Christopher's mother while she was talking to Christopher. We had to add what we think she could have thought in this moment. Last but not least we made two circles of intimacy – our one and Christopher's. It shows which persons have the most intimate relationship to us / Christopher. Here you can see an example of how it could look like:




(Father I – his father before Christopher finds out that he killed Wellington and lied about his mother / Father II – his father after Christopher finds out that he killed Wellington and lied about his mother)


(by Moritz)
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Custody hearing for Christopher Boone

On the last lesson on Friday we began with the statement “Everything is going to be all right. I promise”. So we thought about it and looked it up in our books to find the context. It was Christopher´s mother who said it to her son after she had an argument with Christopher´s father in her flat in London. The topic was that Father wanted his son back but Christopher wanted to live with his mother.

We took this situation as origin for a role-play: the hearing between Ed Boone and Judy Boone about the custody of Christopher. So we built six groups each for one character and worked out a statement of two minutes to say our position about what the best thing would be for Christopher.

The mediator started the hearing and gave an overview about the confused situation in which Christopher and his parents are. After that he handed over to the lawyer of Christopher´s father. He said that Mr. Boone could handle with Christopher alone, because he cooked his meals, cleaned his clothes, looked after him, took him to the doctor and went to school if Christopher was in trouble. On the other side Christopher´s mother left him, because she was be a very hot-tempered person and had hit him if the situation was too much for her. Therefore, she would not able to take care of him. Then the lawyer of Christopher´s mother gave his view on it. He wanted that Judy Boon gets the sole custody for Christopher because it was the wish of Christopher to live with his mother. Moreover, his father hit him after writing the book. That showed that he was unable to take care of Christopher he said. Next Siobhan a teacher of Christopher told her opinion. At first Christopher´s father did a good work handling Christopher, but Christopher is in a deep shock because he is scared about the killed dog and he would be frightened that his father could kill him. But Christopher´s father supported him in everything and so she would suggest that the father got custody. Then Mr. Jeavons the school psychologist went on. He said that it is important to know that Christopher had the Asperger's Syndrome. So he should live with his mother because he is frightened of his father. Christopher could not trust or believe in his father anymore because he could not understand the emotions and feelings of his father. Therefore, he does not know why his father has not shown him the letters and could not understand why father told lies like that mother was dead. But there was the option to trust his father again. Then he should live with both parents together. And at last a social worker said that he would like to have custody for the mother because it was Christopher´s wish. Even if the father was the better option because he had more experience, it was Christopher’s wish so he had to decide where he wanted to live. After that the jury gave short statements - one said he would prefer the sole custody for the mother another said the shared custody, so Christopher could learn to trust his father again. In the following voting eight jury members decided for a sole custody for the mother. Only two preferred a sole custody for the father and one went a shared custody.

Then the lesson ended.

(by Martin S.)

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