Wild Boy: The Real Life of the Savage of Aveyron

In 1798, woodsmen in southern France captured a seemingly wild boy in the woods and marched him to the town square.  So begins the story of the Savage of Aveyron.  Who was this boy? How old was he? Why didn't he speak? No one knew the answers.  Eventually the boy was taken to Paris where he lived in a home for deaf children. He attended the Institute of Deaf-Mutes, where a doctor tutored him intensely.  Although he never learned to speak, he was always drawn to the outdoors and to the woods; and it became clear that he did feel emotions.  Written by Mary Losure, with black and white illustrations by Timothy Ering, this very readable story will interest students at intermediate and middle school grades.