Interesting premise. Apparently starting in the 1920's through the mid 1960's there were a few colleges that had a home-ec program that included a "practice house" with a "practice baby". The school would get a baby from an orphanage and keep it for two years. Each term there would be about 6 students who would take turns taking care of the house and the baby one week at a time. Meaning that the baby was well taken care of, but had no chance of forming a strong bond with one person in their lives. As we know now, that strong bond is one of the most important things in a baby's life and development. Henry House is the baby that the House Mother decided to keep as her own child after the two years were up. Unfortunately Henry hadn't formed a bond with her and still lived in the house with all of the "practice mothers" and the "practice babies" (who would leave after two years...which was yet another confusing development for Henry).
This is Henry's story. His life during those years, and later as an adult. I was a bit disappointed, it wasn't as good as it could have been, but it was worth reading.