While the Locust Slept: A Memoir by Peter Razor 200 pgs

"Peter Razor chronicles his survival of abuse and bigotry at the State Public School at Owatonna in the 1930s and the brutal farm indenture that followed. Disclosing his story through flashbacks and relying on research from his own case files, Razor pieces together the shattered fragments of his boyhood into a memoir
This debut draws on personal memories and official records to track Razor's painful yet triumphant years as a ward of the state of Minnesota. At 15, having endured prejudice, isolation, neglect and terrible physical abuse by the staff, he was sent to work for a local farmer. Via a series of detailed flashbacks, Razor recounts his oppressive childhood."
B&N.com

*Some mature content*  It will be helpful to aid secondary students through the chapters as there are flashbacks intermingled throughout the text, and might be confusing for kids if they don't understand that the author is switching between his time at the State School in his youth and his time as a farm hand in his older teen years.