SOLVED. a boy who had a "knack" [s]

[Robert]

I remember reading the book in the late 80's early 90's. It was fiction about a boy who had what the book referred to as a "knack". I remember 2 things in particular: one, he used his knack in one instance to communicate with bugs in his house and convince them to stay out of his room, which worked until one day he got the bugs to do something that got some of them killed, then they stopped listening to him; and the second part I remember from the book, he eventually had to use his knack to repair sections of a wall and if i recall the wall represented society.

[Michele]

Orson Scott Card has a series about Alvin Maker, first book called The Seventh Son, where magic is called the knack.

It's set in an alternate 1800s America, early settlers, sort of like Little House on the Prairie. I don't remember any specific scenes though the bug thing seems likely.

[Melanti]

I remember the bug scene in Seventh Son and it's in line with what Robert remembers.

[Robert]

yes that's it. Thank you very much