Come on Dave you can do it (A Child Called 'It' - Dave Pelzer)

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Product:	A Child Called 'It' - Dave Pelzer
Date:	04/02/02 (475 review reads)
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Advantages: Great Story, Addictive, Price

Disadvantages: None

This is the most heart rendering, devasting story that I have ever read…all my friends raved about it saying what a good read it was, so not wanting to be left out on what was popular purchased a copy of *A Child called IT * by Dave Pelzer, an author id never heard of, yet a book that was so popular.

I had to find out what all the fuss was about…..you will now see why.

This story grabbed me as soon as I read the first page, my throat became dry as I read this book, at the time I was on a train to work. I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach by what I had just read and was about to read, I was engrossed, yet appalled – two conflicting emotions, very strong emotions, I didn’t know whether to put the book away or carry on reading……..

I cried uncontrollably at times and at times felt so angry and so helpless I wanted to scream. This book should come with a warning. There is nothing you can do to prepare yourself for the horror in this book. I finished it in a total of 6 hours and my tear ducts were fully dried out.

In 1973, Dave Pelzer was identified as one of the most severely abused children in the state of California, it is through his bravery and the fact that he only just survived his childhood that he refused to be beaten, he chose to write about his life as it had been and how he recovered.

*A Child called it *

It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. In a simple statement, this is how to best describe the book. However, I think Dave Pelzer deserves more than a mere statement.

As a child, his mother disowned Dave, she treated worse than any human being deserves to be treated, and you would not want your worst enemy to be treated like this, especially by his OWN mother. It was inhumane, cruel, sadis
t and down right evil – she should have been locked up, or shot which ever process you deem acceptable in this world.

Dave was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. (I use the term mother with bated breath).

Dave had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an “IT” – as she would refer to him. His father was an alcoholic, an absent figure in Dave’s life.

Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. She would make him get on his hands and knees and eat from the floor, often laughing at him. Dave would be so hungry that he would disgrace himself in this way; he was so famished he just did not care anymore.
Dave was starved, stabbed, smashed face-first into mirrors, forced to eat the contents of his sibling's diapers and a spoonful of ammonia, and burned over a gas stove, yet his mother made Dave believe it was his fault, that he made her do this to him.
At one stage in this book I though Dave had given up on life, you have to physically will him to beat this evil woman and make it, get help, do whatever he could.
The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to. He even steals food at school because he is so hungry, they are not aware of what happens to Dave when he gets home, for him school becomes his escape root, but he is so ill treated he becomes withdrawn and those teaching him are not aware of his home life. His mother treats his even worse when she is told of his food stealing.
His dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving
him and calling him their son. But will Dave be rescued?
This is the first book in a trilogy of Dave Pelzer’s life. The next book is ~The Lost Boy~ and this is followed by the final ending ~A Man Named Dave~.

For me it is truly a miracle that Dave survived and has managed to find forgiveness and peace, which is finally revealed in his last book *How to help yourself*. David's life teaches “ The darker the sky, the brighter the star...” a quote my Nan always used to us in the hours of despair and David to me is definitely one of the brightest stars I have ever read about.

I hope this book gives courage to those who still remain silent to speak out and get the help Dave so deserved as an innocent child.

This book is still avalible in all book shops and currently priced at £2.99 at amazon.

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