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A Child Called 'It' - Dave Pelzer
by quissue
I came by this book through a friend, she loaned it too me saying you really must read this it is so good.
So as I sat at home recovering from a broken arm I did.
This is my thoughts about a young boy living with a deranged mother, who has systematically found different ways each day everyday to abuse poor young David, with a ... Fireman father who seemed to be too scared or spineless to help for saving his own skin. What kind of parents were these?
Hideous tales told of a young boy scraping by trying to find food out of bins, stealing from school chums, to save himself from starvation. A mother beating him, poisoning him, cruelly locking him up in a bathroom full of caustic substances burning his throat and eyes and freezing him in cold baths. Not giving him clothes that fit or were clean, food for his stomach. Making him do chores till he was too tired to move and too frightened not too.
Kept him in a dark dingy damp garage sitting on his hands until he could no longer do it only to find himself cold and dirty from messing himself because he had no way of getting to the loo without being seen and
fighting a bad stomach and starvation.
It was harrowing and hideous reading, but once I started it I just had to find out what happened to him. God seemingly deserted him and no one took any notice of him except to scold him. Until one day one person did and he finds himself in foster care.
I felt relieved for a short while.
This book is so thought provoking it just makes me wonder how many more children out there suffer like poor David.
If you can give it a try do. It is heartbreaking tale which I believe to be a true story of a young boy grown into adult hood who finally is able to lay his ghosts to rest. If you can read this there are follow on books by the same author ( A lost boy - A man named Dave - and The privileged youth)
Give them a try.
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A Child Called 'It' - Dave Pelzer
by northernlovely
'A Child Called It' was the first 'white cover' book I ever read. You know what I mean - tales of child abuse, infant trauma, and tragedy, in a white covered book, usually sold in supermarkets. It'd be easy to consider the book as one of these £4, supermarket shelf tales of woe, but trust me, it is THE definitive story of a life turned ... around, as the author, Dave Pelzer, attained huge success with this book and went on not only to document the rest of his formative years over another two books, but also to move into the lucrative world of self-help.
A Child Called It documents Dave Pelzer's childhood in the 1960s in San Francisco. Dave was the victim of an abusive mother; the only child in his family to be singled out and treated so, and indeed, he was rarely referred to by his Christian name. Over the years, Dave was seriously starved, made to drink corrosive cleaning substances, worked as a slave for his mother, made to sleep in the basement garage, and, most shockingly, stabbed in the stomach (with no subsequent medical treatment). Dave's fireman father seems to have been too frightened to admit to the level of abuse Dave recieved, and certainly was oblivious to most of it as he himself drifted further from (and eventually left) his wife. Without spoiling the story; it was many years before anyone outside of the family learned of his life, and how he suffered, and took any action.
The book is in parts heartwarming, and in parts tearjerking, with plenty of shocks thrown in. He remains one of the most severe cases of child abuse I have ever read about, and his courage and determination even as a small child, all alone in dealing with his circumstances, is astounding, and it drives you to read on, hoping that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Again, I don't want to spoil the book or it's follow up for you, so all I will say is that the road is very bumpy, and Dave has to work very very hard and be very brave to achieve even the smallest of gains. But boy does your heart go out to him as he describes with perfect tone and skill how he developed coping mechanisms, survival strategies, and even felt small victories in the daily battle with his opressive mother.
It's all too easy to read the book and think 'ahh, that was the 1960s. It could never happen now' but as we all know from reading the news that is far from the truth, and the fact this happened over forty years ago does not detract from how fresh it feels, how raw. It could be, it can, and it does happen every day, sadly, and this makes the book even more poignant. It highlights that behind closed doors, anything can happen, and we have to be aware that appearances are not always what they seem.
Overall, this is a great book - obviously, not initially a feel good story, but with the tears comes hope, and overall, it's a book of strong will and good vs evil. Rather than class it with the cheaper white covers, see this as the original and the best. A stong five out of five from me, this book will open your eyes, have you dabbing at them with a hankerchief and smiling with joy.
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