In this novel, Elizabeth Shepard presents the story of 12-year-old Benjamin Sherman, who suffers from an unidentified mental illness — autism and depression are implied — and has a stuffed toy in the shape of the letter H for a best friend. The book follows Benjamin’s experience at summer camp, where his parents send him to learn social skills. The novel is composed of written letters, notes and documents relating to Benjamin’s case. In the later part of the novel, the letters are written by Benjamin to his stuffed toy, which he calls Elliot. Alice McDermott wrote in the New York Times Book Review that Shepard’s “triumph is that she has given us an unsentimental portrait of an emotionally disturbed child without ever raising the overwrought question of what madness consists of, and without ever losing sight of the gravity of one child’s pain.”