Lois Lowry’s Silent Boy touches the subject of special needs children in the early 1900’s, an era that was ill-equipped to help such kids. We learn, through the eyes of six-year-old Kate, about Jacob, a boy who Kate’s father describes as “different.” A friendship grows between Kate and Jacob, though Jacob rarely speaks. When a sequence of events leads to Jacob’s arrest, is Kate the only one who understands what really happened?