A Child Called It - Dave Pelzer

Advantages: compelling reading
Disadvantages: heartrending

...to intervene to protect him, a 5th Grade student. Following a weekly inspection of his bruised body, his injuries recorded in detail by the school nurse, they contacted the Police and he was taken into the care of the San Mateo Juvenile Department. His is the third worse case of child abuse recorded in California. I shudder to think about those two worse cases. ●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪ ...
...to the library I spotted a copy on the shelf and brought it home. Yesterday evening I started to read. ●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪●▪ ... Read review

Advantages: Perhaps helped the guy heal.
Disadvantages: Badly put together and contradictions appearing throughout.

A CHILD CALLED "IT" "As a child, Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother, a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left one of her sons nearly dead. She no longer considered him a son, but a slave, no longer a boy, but an "it". The outside world knew nothing of the nightmare played out behind closed doors." Mail on Sunday Alarm bells started to ring when I began to read this book, ...
...outline of the story and a little knowledge of what to expect, although the alarm bells for me began right at the beginning of the book when he acknowledges that the book is heavily edited by Marsha Donohoe, an editor by profession, in an attempt to make the story seem as if it were told by a child. Surely a story of what purports to be "one of the most disturbing child abuse cases in the history of California" should have stood its' ground without ... Read review

Advantages: -
Disadvantages: -

...readitswapit asked to swap with a book in my list a couple of weeks ago and I saw this on theirs, so thought I would take up the opportunity. I wasn’t going to write a review on this book as I thought it would be hard to rate it with the 5 stars it should deserve, marking it as excellent, because of the devastating content of the book. However, I decided that the book, despite its content, was far too good not to give it a mention. The main thing ...
...sick, had actually happened to a frightened, lonely little boy and I could not understand how any woman could treat her own son like Dave Pelzer’s mother did. That said – I guess I should tell you about the book and about the boy that was called ‘It’. ********************************************* Dave Pelzer has written this book in the words of a child and begins by telling the reader of his rescue. What follows, however, are the details of his ... Read review

Advantages: Opens your eyes to what really goes on behind closed doors
Disadvantages: Very graphic, may be too upsetting for some

I finally got it! a charity shop buy admittedly but this book has finally found its way into my possession and read rather rapidly! There could be a problem with writing about this book, the danger being that it would be really easy to write about what's in the book and to expand on the subject rather than look at the book as a whole. I will endeavour to look at the book as a whole but please feel free to leave a comment if you feel i don't. A child ...
...years old. His was a nice normal all american family. It consisted of his mother Catherine, fire-fighter dad, Stephen and his brothers Ronald and Stan. They are one happy loved-up family, David describes how happy the major holidays were, the holidays and trips and how he used to watch his parents prepare drinks and dance cheek to cheek. Then things began to change, Dave tells us that he may have been a loud child or the one that always got caught ... Read review

Advantages: EXCELLENT, RAISES AWARENESS OF IMPORTANT ISSUES
Disadvantages: TRAUMATIC TO READ

A child called it is one of the most moving true stories I have ever read. It was written by Dave Pelzer, who, as a child, was abused so badly by his mother that it was documented as the third worst child abuse case ever recorded in California. The most appauling thing about this, as you will discover on reading the book, is that there have actually been two children treated worse than he was. And, of course, others across the world will also have ...
...written from the perspective of a child going through such a horrible experience, so the vocabulary is fairly limited. The next book in the series, the lost boy, is about the chapter of his life when he was in foster care, and the final book, a man named Dave tells of his life as an adult. The book begins with the story of how Dave was rescued from his evil mother by the people he now regards as heros. The reason for starting at this point in time ... Read review