Rating: 
Summary: One childs courage to survive
Review: Child called "It"
An autobiography
By: Dave Pelzer This story is about David, his mother Catherine Roerva, his two brothers Ronald and Stan, and his father Steven. This story tells you about David's survival and how he was terribly abused by his mother. The story describes his life from ages 4 to 12. David was the youngest of 3, and he was treated like a slave. He rarely got food, new clothes, he had to sleep in the garage, and he had to do everything around the house. His mother abused David and hated him. She referred to him as "It". All the wile she was treating his brothers like angles, she would let them do anything. She loved them but not David. His father tried to help David but his mother would never let him. Some times he would sneak food to him. His father started to drink and come home late because he didn't like the way David and him were being treated. Finally David's father left the family because he couldn't take it anymore. After his father left his mother treated David even more poorly. One of the experiences David tells of was when the family went camping and his dad and brothers wanted to go out and play but David's mother wouldn't let him go with his father and brothers. While they were gone she tried to burn him by picking him up and holing him over the HOT stove, David kicked his mother to the ground and then just as she was going to do it again his dad and brothers walked in. They never knew about what had happened.
Another experience he described was when his mother stabbed him. She threatened to kill him as she picked up a knife. David knew she wouldn't really. She had been threatening him all week. She was yelling at him and started to rock back and forth David knew that she was going to fall flat on her face. Then when she finally feel David saw something out of the corner of his eye fly out of her hand. And next thing he new there was a pain just above his stomach. The story describes David's life between the ages 4 and 12. And the never-ending abuse from his mother, and his fathers inability to help or intervene. His brothers learned to hate him also because of his mother. It is a good book for children and adults to read because everyone should know about child abuse and how to help. And signs on how you can recognize when someone is being abused. It is easy to read and will capture your interest. The book does contain some mature language. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Boy's Struggle
Review: A Child Called "It" by David Pelzer is a wonderful taste of real life. David the young boy in this book falls victim to child abuse. His mother who was once a thoughtful and caring is now a little boy's worst nightmare. A Child Called "It" is based on a true story of David Pelzer life. The mother does many evil things to David, for example David's Mother refuses to feed him. She forces him to throw up to see if David has been a "bad boy".
A Child Called "It" is a book that makes you want to read more and more. You find your self not wanting to put the book down, because you want to know what horrible thing David's mother thinks of next. The book keeps you on your toes through the whole story. It is an eye opening experience into child abuse. It makes you think about why people could be so cruel to children.
I absolutely cherished this story. I read this book in 3 days, because I couldn't put it down! I thought that A Child Called "It" was a real tearjerker. I can't possibly imagine what this little boy had to go through. I couldn't believe the horrendous things that David's mother thought up to do to him! I think you will be surprised at how David's life turned out. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a moving story. I personally loved this book! I know everyone who reads this will need a box of Kleenex.
Rating:
Summary: A Child Called It
Review: 'A Child Called It' The book 'A Child Called It' is probably the best book I have ever read. The book is about a boy whose Mother is very abusive. She makes him sleep on a cot in the basement and gives him little to nothing to eat everyday. At one point in the story, she stabs him with a knife. And this book and the other three that the author, Dave Pelzer has written, are based on a true story. All of the stuff in the book actually happened to him. If you haven't read the book yet, you may think that it is cruel how some one could do this to their own child. I have read the first book, 'A Child Called It' and the second book, 'The Lost Boy' and I still have yet to read the third, 'A Man Named Dave'. The last book I believe is about him when he is older and his life is much better than it was when he was a child.
Reading this book helped be to realize how lucky I am to have a bed to sleep in and food to eat everyday. Reading this book can help you realize that too! By:
Shannon T*
Rating: 
Summary: SAVE YOUR MONEY!!
Review: It's a good read, but I really hate to think I was duped into purchasing not one, not TWO, but THREE of this guy's books to find out what happens (when, in reality, it should have been a compilation under one dust jacket.) This guy is a MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER! This is how he makes a living! The books are fairly good, but full of inconsistencies. The title book, A Child Called It..... is a good example. Only once does his mother call him, "IT"....but if you buy his last book in the series the phrase is peppered throughout. Did he just get his memory working whilst penning the third episode in this tragic saga, or did his IMAGINATION get better by then? Up to you to decide, but as an avid reader of non-fiction works I've read enough to know I don't believe him. Another example I found was in the profound memories this 4-year-old child has. Nobody thinks that way as a kid.....who remembers details so vividly at the age of 4!?! If you want to waste your money on a non-fiction read, buy this book. However, if you'd like to read a good STORY, then you've found one in Pelzer's works. I know this guy suffered some form of abuse, it is recorded in the county records, but as the episodes morph into more bizzare forms of punishment as you buy each installment, I think there is a bit of exaggeration going on here. One point in the last book he writes that his own wife doesn't believe him. Well, no wonder. The story just keeps e x p a n d i n g. I think that she has hit upon the one last morsel of REAL truth; that she didn't believe him and neither should we. If I could get my money back, I'd gladly do it!...
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Summary: A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive
Review: A Child Called It is based on a true story about David Pelzer's, who is also the author, fight for life. David's mother was once the perfect mother always having exotice dinners and teaching him stuff in ways that he would remember it. But then his mother starts becoming hateful towards David. It started out with little things like not letting him eat dinner, but then it would get worse for example she wouldn't let him eat for ten days. She would also make him do chores, she would hit him. David's Dad also was once a caring and loving father towards David but once David's mother went crazy on the family, his father started to come home less to avoid being part of her craziness. At first his father tried fighting back but he always lost the fight with his wife, and got David in more of a hole than when he was in berfore. At first David took everything straight to his heart, anything his mother did made him cry, but after awhile he grew tougher and learned to not take anything his mother said to the heart. He started stealing from his classmates lunch boxes because he was never feed any breakfast and rarely fed dinner. After awhile people started getting suspicious and David got caught which was then reported to his mother. his mother beat him until he was balck and blue all over, David only cried to please her and make her stop beating him. His mother was always coming up with new ideas of how to make his life miserable. For example. she would put ammonia and Clorox in a a bucket and lock David in the bathroom and make him clean it. The mixture created a gray cloud that within minutes filled the whole room, suffocating David. David was a smart boy however, he would go next to the air vent that was in the bathroom and he would breathe in the fresh air, once he got some fresh air he would start cleaning the room gradually. David's mother once loved David. but then alcohol became a big pat of her life, because of the alcohol and the family problems she hated him. David survived his horrible childhood and he now benefits from what he went through as a child, he doesn't take little things for granted like most people do.
Rating:
Summary: A Child Called "It" : One Child's Courage to Survive
Review: A Child Called "It" is a true story about a young boy named Dave Pelzer. It was one of he most severe child abuse cases in the history of California. Years before he was abused, his family could have been considered the "Brady Bunch" of the 1960s. Dave and his 2 brothers had been blessed with perfect parents and every whim was fulfilled with love and care. But after that his relationship with his mom drastically changed from discipline to punishment that grew out of control. Around that time all his mother would do was spend the entire day on the couch in her bathrobe watching TV and drinking beer while her husband was at work. From then on Dave could tell what his day would be like, if she came out with a nice dress on and her face made up he knew it was going to be a good day, but if she came out in her bathrobe he knew that it was going to be a day full of abuse. What she would do is play "games" with him, for example she would make him do all the chores she could think of and then not feed him. If he was lucky he would get the the leftovers, which consisted of soggy cereal left from his brother's bowls that weren't even suitable for a dog to eat. Some other "games" she would do was lock him in the bathroom with a mixture of ammonia and Clorox, make him throw up after school to check if he had stolen and eatin any food and if he had she made him eat his own regurgitated food. Also she mad him sleep on an army cot in the cold garage. His father new about it but did nothing to stop it, he was once Dave's hero but when he left him all Dave felt towards him was anger. Why his mom chose him to be her target, we still don't know. I often wonder why Dave's mom suddenly changed into a bitter woman, and how Dave found the strength and courage to survive all those years of abuse.
I thought over all that the book was extremely good, well written and detailed. In a way his story is easy to relate to and in some ways its not. how it's easy is that all he wants to do is fit in with the croud and school and be treated like a human being and a lot of kids have to go through that as they grow up. It's difficult to relate to because no one knows the pain he had to go through.
Rating:
Summary: A Child Call "IT"
Review: I think this book is very good for children and for adult,so they know what is happening & how to stand up for there selves. Also so they could under stand what it could be like to be abused and to be in foster care. i know that it must not be easy for any one and plus my bf is a foster child so that helped me under stand.
Well thank you for reading this bye
Rating:
Summary: Heart warming!
Review: I started reading your first book when I was 15, I couldn't put it down. I never use to read, but once reading 3 of your books - 'A child called it', 'The lost boy' and 'A man named Dave', its made me look a lot closer to live, and the way people get treated, in many different ways. I am now nearly 17, and cant wait to read the rest of your books.
Thank you so much for letting me become the person i never thought i could be!
Rating:
Summary: Heart wrenching, life changing
Review: I had to put this book down on numerous occassions because it made me physically ill to read the true hell that was put upon this poor, helpless child by his own mother. You can never imagine what he went through, she forced him to eat his own vomit and the dirty diaper of his baby brother! I gag as I even write this now. But he survived, it is a rallying cry for those being abused, you to can survive - surely if this author did.
Rating:
Summary: The fastest read I've ever had! Could not put it down
Review: This was one of the most well-written books I've ever read. It affected me in ways I've never been affected by a book. I read it in about 3 hours, cover to cover. It was absolutely impossible to put down. It made me sad, angry, disgusted, relieved and proud. It truly amazes me that David Pelzer came through that severe abuse and is now a decent, basically normal person. People with that kind of childhood sometimes end up on drugs, a serial killer or dead. David triumphed over evil and he should be damn pround of himself. I remember seeing him on Montel years ago when this book first came out and he inspired me then. This book just strenghtened my admiration for him. I can't wait to read the other two books in the series. He's an excellent author.
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