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Summary: A Child Called "It"
Review: A Child Called "It", One Child's Courage to Survive written by Dave Pelzer was an opening book. A Child Called "It" was of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is a story about David, who was a young boy time, who was abused by his alcoholic mother while his dad just stood back and watched. A lot of the time David was not feed for days at one time he went ten days without food. Many times his mother would try to kill him. David would go to school in Swiss cheese clothes and smell like a pig pin.
On of the most memorial parts of the book for me was when his mother set him on the gas stove to burn. This part the book mad me want to keep reading because I could have almost guarantee that his mother was going to kill him. "Mother then ordered me to climb up onto the stove and lie on the flames so she could watch me burn. I refused, crying and pleading. I felt so scared I stomped my feet in protest. But mother continued to force me on top of the stove. I watched the flames, praying the gas might run out" (Pelzer 41-42). I really loved this book, its one of those books that you ca read for hours and never get bored. There are a lot of interesting things that happen to keep you reading the book to the very last page. The part I am at now David's mother is about to stab him. "Do you hear me?" Mother yelled. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!" As I looked at her, Mother snatched a carving knife from the counter top and screamed, if you don't finish [the dishes] on time, I'm going to kill you" (Pelzer 85)! David's mother try's to thank of new ways to hurt and torture David. Besides the fact David is hardly ever feed he is treated like a slave. David is given the food that the dogs will not even eat and that is what he survives on so he has to eat it. He had to obey ever thing his mother says or he will be give harsh punishment. One day after David didn't do what his mother told him to do, he at a very harsh punishment. "But this time, she put a bucket, filled with a mixture or ammonia and Clorox, in the room with me and closed the door" (Pelzer 107). I really loved the book I suggest that you should read it. Although, it is also very sad and some parts are grouse so if you can't handle that type of thing I would thank about it before you read it. The book is very interesting and keeps the reader reading to the last page and it is also a true story. Because it is the first book in a series I can't wait to read the second. Dave Pelzer did a very good writing book.
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Summary: A Child called "It"
Review: In A Child Called "It" a boy fights to stay alive. His mother says that he is a bad boy and that he should be punished for his wrong doing. The boy, David, is forced to do all of the chores at home. His mother hates him so much that she makes him sit outside while the family is inside eating supper. If she even thanks that he is doing something wrong she will start hitting him and punching him until he's down on the floor then she would tell him to go and get his chores down. The mother hated him so much that she him live down in the garage and sleep in the army cot. I think that the mother is horrible and needs to be taken away. When I was reading A child called "It" I came to a part in the book that was all most impassible to believe. The mother had just had a child. The baby had a dirty diaper and the mother went to go take it off and clean him up. But instead of throwing the diaper away she throws the diaper on the table and makes him eat the dirty diaper. David refused so his mother takes the diaper and smears it in his face. "She slammed my face into the diaper and rubbed it from side to side" (Pelzer 57). In A Child called "It", I read a bunch of parts in the story that was unbelievable. One was when the mother made him eat poop. Some others were when she made him eat vomit, drink Clorox, abused him, and staved him. Sometimes she would not feed him because she thought that he was eating food that was not given to him. She would also starve him because he had a certain amount of time to finish his chores and he wouldn't get them done on time. "During the period of time when father was away, Mother starved me for about 10 conceptive days. No matter how hard I tried to meet her time limits, I couldn't make it" (Pelzer 104). I thought that it was a very sad book. I don't think that she should have treated him like that. If I was him I would have ran away if I got the chance.
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Summary: A response to liturature.
Review: "A Child Called It" by Dave Pelzer, It is a very heart breaking book. I cried through the whole thing. That's a very depressing book, because now I look at all adults and their children, and I just wonder if that's happening to them. I don't understand why people would do that to there kid. The fact that Dave Pelzer can tell his tragic story today is amazing. I wouldn't be able to ever forgive my mother if she abused me. The book was extremely depressing and sad, but because he wrote the book and he forgives his mother it's a very exiting book. He had a lot of courage to write all the books about the abuse.
The feeling I had when I was reading this book, was a very upset feeling. I didn't like reading that book because it was so sad and depressing, but it was very interesting. The fact that the kid had to eat a dirty diaper was horrible. When the child had to get on top of the stove with the stove on, I cried my eyes out because it was so horrible. My mom read the book to and she couldn't finish it because she was way to upset. It's a very good book but it's a heart breaker too.
I learned that I need to be happy with what I got and respect my mom and every one that is always there or me. Me and my mom don't get along all the time but I try to get along with her all the time because if I don't I think about Dave Pelzer and how he got miss treated. When my mom tells me "no I can't do something," I get mad at first and then I think about the book. The book has changed the way I think about the world. The world isn't all good and joyful. There are a lot of bad things happening to young and older people.
The most unbelievable part in the book was when she made him get up on the stove when it was on. I was horrible he was crying and screaming and she still didn't let him get off of it. The poor kid probably had burn marks all over him but he eventually got off the stove and equipped her until his little brother got home. She wont hurt him in front of any one.
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Summary: Also in agreement
Review: (...) "A Child Called It" is (...) deep down emotionally impacted story of the worst forms of abuse. It is the courageous story of a boy that must live through this abuse and find a way to thrive.
Our books, as the reviewer below has mentioned "Nightmares Echo" and "Lucky" tell of other forms of abuse, and the courage of a child dealing with this horror in their lives. Another book is "Sickened". Each are in memoir style fashion, each dealing with abuse, something most children never could concieve let alone live through, and yet these authors are here to tell the story and hope that it helps others out there make it through as well.
Read these books, you will come away with an understanding like you never imagined before.
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Summary: Truely Amazing
Review: I just recently found the book "A Child Called It" in a local store. The title jumped off the shelf at me. I just had to buy it. Once I finished reading it I could not wait to purchase Dave's other books. I just keep asking myself how can a mother treat one child so badly yet care for her other children this truely baffles me. I am currently reading "The Lost Boy" and am looking forward to purchasing his other 3 books as well. Thank you Dave for sharing your turely amazing story of a child's survival and will to survive with us all.
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Summary: unreal
Review: Reading this book made me question my motives for pursuing such a sadistic type of "entertainment". The mother in this book was a disgusting creature of the nazi type, I found it unbelievable the things she subjected her child to. It was a game to her, a never-ending torture fest. I read the whole book in one sitting, and kept reverting back to the question of "how does she feel now?"
So if you are wondering if the book will absorb you emotionally- yeah, it will.
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Summary: A Child Called It
Review: A Child Called It, by David Pelzer, will let you see through the eyes of a true survivor, and forever change your views on life. This story takes place in the seventies, in a suburban California neighborhood.
David Pelzer had a great life for a while. His mother was perfect, their yard was the envy of the neighbourhood. Mrs. Pelzer strives to be the perfect mom to her three boys. She did a great job, until David was about six years old. His mother became an alcoholic. She picked on David specifically. This was only the beginning of 6 years of starvation, beatings, and twisted games that David had to struggle through. Eventually David was no longer a true member of the family. He was not a son, but a slave. Not a child, but an it.
I highly recommend this book to people who think their life is bad. When you read it you feel as if you're right there with him. This book made me especially grateful for the things I have.
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Summary: Through the eyes of a child: a story of abuse
Review: This book is one of the most compelling books I have read in the last ten years. David Pelzer gives the reader a powerful account of what he experienced and what he felt while his mother physically and psychologically abused him. Her actions ranged from denying David food for days at a time; to stabbing him with a knife, and holding his arm over an open flame. You can see this cild attemting to reconcile his mother's treatment with his limited understanding of how healthy parental-child relationships should work. One of the most interesting aspects of the book are David's feelings during the school's intervention on his behalf. This book should be required reading for any teaching professional who deals with children.
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Summary: The Realizations:
Review: (...) A reviewer,
I have been a non-fiction readers for years, recently turning to Memoir style books. Then I read a book called Nightmares Echo, This story told about child abuse and sexual abuse of a particular child. It was then that I set my sites on books with this type of subject. It led me to this book, A Child Called It. This has got to be one of the worst cases of child abuse I think I have ever read about. It is told in a matter of fact, no holds barred style. It is an awakening to the reader as to what actually takes place with a child that lives through and deals with a life such as this. The courage is astounding. If you do anything, get involved. Read about child abuse, read A Child Called It...see what is happening around us. Get involved to help stop it in some way.
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Summary: Unfathomable
Review: This book truly shows that any animal can give birth. Having the ability to reproduce does not make you a parent. I cried for the little boy throughout this whole book. I found it hard to keep reading but couldn't stop. I was praying throughout this book that his excuse for a father would come to his rescue. How could any "so called" mother be so cruel and why was David picked? I suggested this book for my book club and will be suggesting the sequel to this story, "The Lost Boy" for those of us who can stomach reading this any further. I for one feel that I have to read it for David. If I ever get the opportunity to meet him, I would just want to hug him and tell him it's not his fault, his mother is truly insane and his father is the sole definition for sorry.
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