Ben MacDonald

Benjamin MacDonald, at six years old, is the youngest child of the MacDonald family. A quiet, shy, fair-haired tyke, Ben is small for his age - about the size of an average three-year-old. Ben understands everything others say to him, but he rarely speaks. He is closer to his sister Coral, who is three years older, than to Beth, the bossy oldest sister. Ben's father, William MacDonald, seems huge and threatening to the boy. Instead, Ben is closer to, and tries to imitate, his bother John, the oldest of the MacDonald children at 16. John takes more time to try to understand and communicate with Ben on his own level, while William MacDonald thinks Ben is just spoiled, and needs discipline to behave normally.

Today, many of the behaviors Ben displays could be attributed to a mild case of autism. Ben relates better to animals than to humans...