1. How would you describe Christopher’s world?
   

2. What “risks” does the author take by writing from Christopher’s point of view? Does he succeed in making Christopher a convincing narrator?
   

3. There is a lot of humor in the book. Christopher is often unintentionally funny. Do you ever feel the author makes fun of Christopher?
   

4. Christopher writes about some fascinating scientific and natural phenomena, and math problems, such as the expanding universe (p. 9-11), The Monty Hall Problem (p. 62-65), Conway’s Soldiers (p. 146-148) and prime numbers (p. 11-12). Why does the author include these problems and theories? Is it just to be cute? What other reasons could there be?
   

5. The author says that readers’ opinions of Christopher’s father range from seeing him as a “good man struggling in difficult conditions” to “the guy’s a psychopath.” What’s your opinion of the father? What passages in the book back up your opinion?
   

6. Why wasn’t Christopher’s father able to establish a close relationship with his son until near the end of the book?
   

7. Anger is a theme throughout the book. Notice the ways different characters handle anger.
   

8. What role do lying and deception play in the book? How does Christopher get around the fact that he can’t lie because lying is not logical?
   

9. Did you solve the mystery of the dog in the night-time before the killer is revealed? How did you figure it out?
   

10. There are instances when Christopher, with his singular brand of wisdom, makes more sense than the adults around him. What are some examples of this?
    

11. Society judges disability by limitations rather than by possibilities. We focus on what people can’t do instead of what they can do. Does Christopher have a disability?
    

Questions compiled by Suzanne Fisher (fishers@uhls.lib.ny.us)
October 2004