ABAW, Read-Aloud Trio: Eternity Code, Graveyard Book, and Curious Incident

Three books I read out loud to the Sonars in September, October, and November.

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Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer. Hyperion via Scholastic, 2003.

I’ve never liked Artemis quite as much as the Sonars do, but Colfer’s lyrical words are fun to read aloud.

This is the third in the series of books about the preteen criminal mastermind, but Artemis’ conscience is beginning to prick at him a bit more sharply. Artemis is recognizing that his activities hurt people that he loves. That combined with the moral reformation of his recovering father suggests that Artemis’ criminal days may soon be over.

“Just one more job” doesn’t go quite as planned. A restaurant explodes and Butler gets shot when Artemis underestimates a dirty American business tycoon. Shaken by his mistake, Artemis has to call on Holly (one more time) to try to save Butler and recover a piece of fairy technology, and the clock is ticking. Butler’s teenaged sister Julia takes on a more prominent role as she tries to fill her big brother’s big shoes. Julia Butler’s style is all her own though. Foaly is my favorite series character, but Artemis, Julia, and Holly have to work with limited assistance from the clever centaur. Without giving away too much, Colfer hits a sort of reset button at the conclusion of this one, promising that subsequent adventures will renew the conflict between human child-genius and fairykind. 

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The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. HarperCollins paperback, 2008.

The Sonars chose this book for Halloween reading. This was the second time through for most of us, but the first time out loud.

Gaiman’s story of Nobody Owens—the boy who is raised by ghosts in a graveyard after his family is brutally murdered—is easily one of my favorite books of all time. It bears rereading, and grows with the kids. They notice and understand the implications of the story differently as they change and understand the world differently.

The structure of the book makes it a fabulous bedtime read. I think the early chapters could each stand as a story on their own for a reader who isn’t ready to commit to the whole novel.

I love Gaiman’s books for children and adolescents because he does not condescend to a misguided notion of youthful innocence and understanding. He knows that kids know things, and need to know things. His books are sometimes scary, showing an ugly side of humanity and life and death. But he doesn’t frighten in a vacuum. The children in the stories find strength in themselves to not only conquer their fears, but to find the source of their power in the acceptance of their own oddities.

As a mother, reading this to my growing boys, I find several parts of the story of the growth of Bod very moving. I’m inspired by the gentle but thoughtful parenting provided by all of the different adults (ghostly and not) in Bod’s life, and hope that I can help the Sonars navigate their ways to adulthood with as strong and wonderful a sense of compassion and self that Bod finds. 

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The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Random House (Via Vintage Books) 2003.

The narrator and main character of this story is Christopher, a fifteen year old boy with autism. In the opening scene, he stumbles on his neighbor’s dog, who has been killed with a garden fork. Christopher wants to solve the mystery of who killed Wellington, and because he loves Sherlock Holmes, he tells us the story in what he imagines to be a Sherlockian detective style. But he also tells us so much more. The mystery is far more complicated than who killed the dog. The audience cannot help but understand who has killed the Wellington, and how a lie has grown, well before Christopher can understand what has happened. The world of emotion is bewildering for Christopher. Details that reveal to most readers information about the well-being (or lack thereof) of various people in Christopher’s life, do not register the same way with Christopher. How does a person who has trouble understanding and expressing emotion, cope with great emotional upheaval in his life? How does he understand trust? How does one rebuild trust with him once it is lost?

This is not, strictly speaking, a children’s story. I hesitated at first to read this one out loud to the Sonars. Is the story and language too mature? I wondered. Are the subtleties of Christopher’s character too sophisticated for the Sonars to understand? But we read this one right after we finished The Graveyard Book, and I remembered the lesson not to underestimate kids and to trust that they will learn what they can from a story.

Alternating sequences advance the plot and explain complicated mathematical and logical ideas that help to calm Christopher when he becomes upset. These sometimes very difficult puzzles that we might struggle to understand offer the reader analogies for how Christopher feels in understanding relationships. His father’s pain might be obvious to us, but so is the logic problem obvious to Christopher. Haddon’s portrayal of this character is subtle, compassionate, complicated, and beautiful. As well as sometimes a little gritty and profane (but only mildly profane).

The Sonars loved this story. I think they did understand that Christopher does not experience the world the same way they do. Nevertheless they were able to very strongly empathize with Christopher’s adventure and his struggle and his fear as he stumbles into a very alien and insecure new circumstance. They sat tensely, on the edge of their seats, as Christopher tried to make his way through the train station the first time, and so, perhaps, understood Christopher’s story on an immediate and more deeply emotional level.