All He Knew by Helen Frost

Henry got very ill at a young age and lost his hearing.  His older sister takes care of him, sticking close.  But when he reaches school age, his parents must make a choice.  Will they send him to the school for the deaf or to the school for those who have physical problems?  Mom wants to send him to the school for the deaf but she doesn't like what the matron has to say.  She thinks he's stupid even before she's met him.  They send him to the other school.

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published August 11th.

The other school is further away and they can't visit often.  They don't have the funds.  So poor Henry goes to this home where he sleeps in a ward with other boys and gets abused by the men working there.  They strap bad boys into chairs and leave them there for days.  That's never happened to Harry but he doesn't wake in the morning, so the man pulls his blankets off rudely and shouts at him.  He fixes him, though.  He has this really smelly fart and pulls his blankets tight.  When the man pulls the blankets off he gets that wonderful aroma.  After that, he just shakes his shoulder.

He makes two good friends.  They do things together.  The smaller one is missing an arm and he decides to run away.  Henry retrieves him and they sneak back in at the end of the breakfast line.  The new man says nothing.  He's much kinder.

When Henry gets sick again the put him in the sick ward.  There are a lot of others there.  It's the mumps.  When little Billy gets sick, he doesn't come back.  Henry grieves...

Then his other friend gets to go home.  Will Henry ever get to go home?