Book Review: A Child Called It: One Child’s Courage To Survive (Dave Pelzer #1); By Dave Pelzer

rate } ♠♠♠♠
genre } non-fiction | biography | child abuse
release day } 1st September 1995
publisher } HCI
format } e-book
isbn } B004FN1T3K
pages } 195 pg.
source } bought
age group } pg 13+
interest } young adult | teens | adults
challenge }
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A Child Called It: One Child’s Courage To Survive
(Dave Pelzer #1)
by; Dave Pelzer

Via GoodReads
David J. Pelzer's mother, Catherine Roerva, was, he writes in this ghastly, fascinating memoir, a devoted den mother to the Cub Scouts in her care, and somewhat nurturant to her children--but not to David, whom she referred to as "an It." This book is a brief, horrifying account of the bizarre tortures she inflicted on him, told from the point of view of the author as a young boy being 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 by a maniacal, alcoholic mom. Sometimes she claimed he had violated some rule--no walking on the grass at school!--but mostly it was pure sadism. Inexplicably, his father didn't protect him; only an alert schoolteacher saved David. One wants to learn more about his ordeal and its aftermath, and now he's written a sequel, The Lost Boy, detailing his life in the foster-care system.

Though it's a grim story, A Child Called "It" is very much in the tradition of Chicken Soup for the Couple's Soul and the many books in that upbeat series, whose author Pelzer thanks for helping get his book going. It's all about weathering adversity to find love, and Pelzer is an expert witness.

My 2 Cents
** SPOILERS ALERT **


People has been bugging me badly to read this book ever since before I was into biographies. And last night, after letting it lay there.. with thunderstorm drumming overhead.. I was bored so I picked it up.

... and I didn't stop reading it until 3 hours later.. at 1 am.. on a work night.... Work night!

…and it left me all emotional after reading it.. thinking.. what the hell?! What a sick sick mother! I was woke up thinking, I must have missed the trigger.

.. and it turned out I didn't. I never thought I be so floored. The last time I read something that left me aghast, was My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

...And there was a heartless mother in that too! That one was at least fiction! I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

Oh wow... I can't really review this. This is a story of a person's real life.
Burnt, gas, stab, starve... I was trying to figure out if he was adopted (he wasn't), or a bastard (he wasn't).. Dear God I need to gather myself.. for this review.

I was pulled into his world. I cringed but I couldn't stop reading. It's like.. I can't abandon him, I feel like I was abandoning him if I Stop reading. What kind of mother woke up one day, and decided "Hey.. I hate this kid." Worse yet, degrade him. refuse acknowledgement, that he has an identity. Kill him slowly. But only him. (turned out there's another brother who "replace" his victim spot when he was taken away from home.)

Oh dear, I'm horrified. He's father was helpless... But he could have taken little Dave away from the monster in the house. but he didn't.

Oh my, I have come down to the point where I'm not sure how to review this book. In fact, I ended up judging instead of reviewing.

Anyway... one thing for sure.. If you are down and think your life stinks, read this. And guess what... Dave Pelzer survived. He pulled through a torturous life with a monster he called mom, who probably killed him if nobody help him out, or if he gave up.