This book has left it's mark on me forever (A Child Called 'It' - Dave Pelzer)

Member Name: NikkiH

Product:	A Child Called 'It' - Dave Pelzer
Date:	08/03/01 (794 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not appropriate

Disadvantages: Not appropriate

I had never heard of David Pelzer or his books until I read about them on Dooyoo, but after reading some reviews I felt compelled to read them.

I started with the first book in the trilogy "A Child Called It". I knew it would be hard going, but I did not expect the book to affect me the way it has. If it was a work of fiction it would have shocked me, but that these events actually happened to someone brings me distress, and I am not being a drama queen. Even while thinking about what to write in this review I feel sick and tearful at the same time. I will never forget this book, or the man behind the story.

For those of you who do not know, this book is the story of a child who is tortured ( I do not think beaten adequately describes his living hell), and starved by a mother who is an alcoholic, but very clearly mentally unstable to say the least. As a child, David had to play a grown ups game in order to survive each hour of each day, as his mother turned him into a slave...a boy acknowledged only by the name "it".

This book is about the spirit that David had. His mother played cruel games with him and made sure he was never accepted by the outside world. She made him wear the same clothes for 2 years, so fellow classmates and teachers could not stand his smell. He was ignored at Christmas, while his brothers enjoyed the traditional opening of gifts, and David was only summoned when there were chores to do. This progressed onto savage beatings, where on more than one occasion David lost a tooth, or was left in the cold garage when he really needed hospital attention. There are so many instances that will shock you to your core...being force fed ammonia.....being stabbed by his mother and receiving no medical attention.....having his arms held over the gas stove and feeling them burn, and smelling his burning hair and skin. Yes, this is gruesome stuff.

This book made me mad too. David's father stood by an
d watched this happen, but never tried to put a stop to it or get David away from the situation. In fact the man kept having more children with this evil woman. Only when she was in hospital giving birth did David experience anywhere near normality. He was allowed to eat, something his mother would not allow. She starved him at any opportunity and made him vomit everyday on his return from school to see if he had managed to get any food during the day, and if he had his punishment was unimaginable to most of us.

The book starts with "The Rescue", and explains how when he was 12, some teachers put their jobs on the line, and managed to get him into the care of the authorities, upon which he was identified as the most seriously abused child the Californian authorities had ever seen.

The book was a New York best seller for over a year, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Please read this book, and even though there are times you will want to close it and not go on, you have to, because the more people that hear the message from David, the less chance there is of this ever happening again.

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