| Product: |
A Child Called 'It' - Dave Pelzer |
| Date: |
23.05.06 (713 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: The way this young boy copes with the abuse is inspiring
Disadvantages: To find out the extent to which an innocent young child can be abused
A CHILD CALLED ‘IT’
This is a book that is set in the 1970’s in California. It is written by a man called Dave Pelzer, and this book is all about Dave Pelzer’s life as he grew up between the ages of 4yrs and 12yrs old.
It’s about a young boy who starts off in a very warm and happy family. He has at the beginning a very caring mother, a father and 2 brothers. His mother sounds wonderful to all her children and takes them on lots of trips and holidays and gives them all lots of treats. Several years on however and things take a dramatic turn. David’s mother starts to drink heavily, David’s father often works 24hr shifts and David gradually becomes the victim of his mothers rapidly changing attitudes. She treats her other two children with respect, but for David he becomes her slave. He is constantly given chores to do around the house with unreasonable deadlines to complete them in, he is rarely allowed to eat a decent meal – often only being allowed to eat any leftovers if he is lucky. He is made to sleep in what he called his army cot in there cold garage, and is beaten and made to feel like an animal. There are many incidents where things gradually get worse and life threatening things happen to him caused only by his mother. David’s family are aware of his suffering but are too scared to say anything in case they also become there mothers victim.
HOW DAVE PELZER APPROACHED WRITING THIS BOOK
There are 7 main chapters to this book and the first chapter actually gives you the final outcome to the story. So it is like reading the last chapter first. To find out the ending before I started the book in a sense took away some of the suspense of reading this book, but not enough to make me not want to read it. In fact as I was reading through the book the further I got and the more difficult it was to read each chapter as things seemed to go from bad to worse the more I appreciated the fact that I knew there would be a positive outcome at the end. So I think that by writing the book in this way works very well.
HOW I FELT READING THIS BOOK
I was aware before I brought this book that it was a true story based on child abuse, but I had know idea of the extent of abuse that would be suffered, so it came as quite a shock to read on through this little boys life and read what I would describe as some very shocking incidents that are described with such detail and feeling that it is almost hard to carry on reading at some points as it is very upsetting. There was however 3 things that made me carry on reading this book:
1. Knowing there was a positive outcome at the end
2. Reading about the way David coped every time he was abused was inspirational and it was very interesting. To think how he carried on when he was so weak and fearing for his life every day and how he turned situations round in his favour was remarkable. I felt privileged to be finding out about this amazing young boy.
3. It intrigued me so much how David could be living in a family with 4 brothers, and a mother and father – each and every one of these knew young David was being abused but none of them said anything. They were to afraid of what would happen to them if they got involved. And also it intrigued me as to how it could possibly take a school years to discover that David was being abused – particularly as the abuse he was receiving was so bad.
So all these things made me carry on reading this book. It gave me a real understanding as to why there are so many children that are abused that can go unnoticed for so long. I just hoped that there were others out there who were reading this book who were experiencing abuse that could read this book and really realise that as a victim it is not there fault and that the best thing is to own up and be truthful about what is happening. The fear of things getting worse it sounds like is one thing that stops people doing this, but in most cases this is a turning point in there life where things do start to gradually improve.
A BOOK OF 3 PARTS
There are 2 more books that follow on from ‘A Child Called It’. These are called ‘The Lost Boy’ and also ‘A man Named Dave’. They follow the life of David from childhood into adulthood. ‘A Child Called It’ at the end contains a chapter from each book so you get a good insight into what each of the other true stories are about. I liked the fact that they included parts of each book as if you decided you didn’t want to read on into the other books it wouldn’t matter as you would feel that you have gained a basic insight into what happened to David following on from the abuse.
I personally will read the other two books as it sounds like the first book was based on the abuse, the second on his escape from the abuse and taking his mum to court, and the final book is based on David as an adult and what he goes onto achieve in life so I don’t see the other two books as disturbing to read as the first book is.
I would recommend the first book to anyone who enjoys a good true story but isn’t easily upset or sensitive to reading about some quite disturbing abuse scenes.
ADDITIONAL IMFORMATION
This book is available to buy priced at £5.99. I have seen it sell on both E-Bay and Amazon for as little as 99p plus postage.
Thanks for reading this
Sarah
Summary: A book that gives you a very good insight into what can go on behind closed doors!
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