All He Knew by Helen Frost (review)

Illness renders Henry deaf at a young age, and in 1939, when he's six, authorities label him "unteachable" and his family is told to place him in the Riverview Home for the Feeble-Minded. As Henry makes his way in the abusive and neglectful institution, treasuring but then losing the occasional friend, he's missed at home, especially by his older sister, Molly, who communicates with him by sending him pictures. The arrival of the war brings conscientious objectors to the institution staff, especially kind Victor, who realizes Henry is much smarter than he's perceived to be and suggests to Henry's family that a future outside of Riverview is not only possible but preferable. Frost's smooth, burnished verse, ranging from free verse to sonnets, unfolds the story nimbly. While the historically based picture of the institution and its view of disability is appropriately horrifying, the book carefully avoids turning this into a stereotypical rescue drama; Henry is a keen perceiver capable of rebelling in well targeted ways (as with his fart attack on an intrusive staffer). It's also clear that Henry's cash- and option-strapped farm family is, as his father says, "the kind that doesn't get to make the rules" when authority tells them what they should do. The result is an absorbing story of a boy and his family oppressed by circumstances but, rewardingly, finding a way to rise above them. Extensive notes explore the history of conscientious objectors and the relative on whom the story is based.