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Summary: a man named dave
Review: i found this book very interesting, i have read the previous two and am now on 'help yourself', after reading 'a child called it' and 'the lost boy' i was in tears but made me realise how precious life really is and to take one day at a time!!
it made me think of my life and changed my outlook on life and i feel a different person after reading these books, it made me think how Dave cope with his life and he truly is a very strong person and an excellent role model and i truly believe to follow your dreams!!!
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Summary: Kristen's review for a good book
Review: Think about getting burned on your arm by a gas stove, locked in
the basement, sleeping in the cold garage, having to search through the trash for food. That is how Dave Pelzer lived when he was a little boy.
Dave Pelzer, author of the international bestsellers, "A Child Called It", "The Lost Boy", and "A Man Named Dave". In the book "A Man Named Dave", Dave talks about how he was determined to make something out of his life after he was rescued from his mother. This book is the last of the three.
Dave is just someone who had the odds against him, who never gave up, and who now has a wife, son, and travels throughout the country inspiring hope in many individuals. This book is an inspiration to all ages.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting
Review: this book was a sit on the edge of your seat read. Dave tells an interesting story of his life but leaves out too much information for the seasoned reader. Whatever happened to his brothers, did Dave ever have any counseling or is he self healed. These are very important questions for people to know. It gives you some closure to a satisfying reading. Another sequel would be a carrot stick. I think all 3 books were wonderful but we need more info. to feel satisfied.
Rating: 
Summary: A Gentle Beware
Review: Everyone loves Dave Pelzer's books because the story he tells is an incredible story of suvival. I just think it's important to remind readers that there is no real evidence to back up the details of his story (some of it may be innaccurate, there's no way to prove it either way). We want to believe it and believe that Dave is an honest man, and that may be the case, but remember also that he is making a lot of money off these books, also earning a living through inspirational speaking, and money can be a strong motivator to twist truths to make books (or talks) more exciting. His "flowery" language at the beginning and end of all his books bothers me because I feel like he is trying to manipulate me into feeling "moved" by his experience. If he just stuck to the story and weaved his spiritual realizations into the text of the story in a more realistic way, I feel his books would be much better and would feel less manipulative. This is an entertaining book, though, and can be read in a day or two.
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Summary: It's hard to remain calm when you read this
Review: It horrified me when I read "A child called it". In the other books I've read by Petzler, I seems the Devil desires to keep tormenting him, as he did through his mother. I thought, enough, enough!" And who does his grandmother think *she* is to add on his sufferings by making accusations to him. David James Petzler has done no wrong and I am quite ashamed of Petzler's grandmother to imagine such things!
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Summary: A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness
Review: This book, as well as the previous two (A Child Called "It": One Childs Courage To Survive AND The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search For The Love Of A Family) touched my life forever. If nothing else but to let others understand that this type of abuse exists, this is one of the best books (series) I have ever read. I am a mother of three children. I can tell you that even the smallest upsets are looked at in a new light. I highly recommend reading these.
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Summary: He built a bridge for others to walk, the same way he did
Review: The series that Dave Pelzer wrote is perhaps the strongest and most gripping text I've ever read. It describes such evil that it makes you want to escape this brutal world never to return. I forced myself to read it though and am now glad that I did so - cause I can feel how his story helps me as I am sure it helps everyone and I see now how he deliberatly left himself out to make others see exactly how it is possible to achieve miracles.He fought from nothing. He kept doing one stupid misstake after the other and was put down so many times that it would have been enough to make him give in to his poor esteem and give up. He never did though. Even though he was feeling a fool and not good enough to talk to anyone - he did what was in his heart to do - and he reached all the goals he ever had - maybe not in a way he had foreseen but somehow it was a product of his endless fight against his past and towards the goal of becoming something good. If you can find that poise that he has - and why would it be impossible? - then why would you not be able to do the same thing? Strangely I think this simple message finally got to me through this his last book. These three books have become as important to me as "tuesdays with Morrie". The goal with Dave's books - I see now - is to expose himself so that others - probably first hand the ones in his former situation - can see and truly feel that happiness can be achieved with seemingly no means at all. But still, without any people believing in you and telling you that (contradiciting your inner voices that tell you you're worthless or the like) noone can truly make it. He gives away the key to fokus on your own fight and allowing yourself to listen to the good things people say as opposed to taking the bad things to your heart and letting them eat to you. I think if you can make yourself read all of these books then you should definitely do it.
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Summary: Even i couldn't believe how moved and emitional i became
Review: Dave pelzer, if you read this, i think you are such an extraordinary man and i admire you for being so brave. Your life has so many values which we can learn from,and by reading this book, you have probably made me feel more emotional than i have ever felt about someone, and not myself. And it helps me, when i think about what i would like to do in the future.
This is for everyone else, Dave pelzers life is one to be noticed and remebered. Although shocking, it hits you hard even more for the reason that things like this are really happening, and this must be put to an end. Fortunately for Dave there were people who put their job on the line to save his life, and lead him to one where he would be given the chance to live a real life, although he suffered so much that no - one else could ever imagine. Things happened to him which i thought were not possible, it shocked me when reading about the way his drunken mother abused him, physically and mentally by playing games, and only being nice to him, when she knew the social service were coming, leading him to think that everything was over - it makes you think, 'well why bring this child into the world, and give them a life such as this, of violence and abuse'. I know this sounds like a report which is not telling you about the book, because this is not my point. I recommend you to read this, because it is so moving, and even for those people who aren't particulary emotional people, sometimes like me, it even touches you, and it goes deep down into your heart because you know what you are reading is real and horrifying, yet this person has surived, and you can't imagine how. It is a story about probably the bravest and strongest person i have ever known of. If it was me in his past situation then i know that i would have wanted to die. And although at times, Dave did, he still had that little bit left in him, that made him want to survive, show that mother of his, that one day, he would become something, but yet it was to survive and make something of himself, for himself. When i was reading the first part of the book 'a boy called it', there were many times when i actually cried when i read about all that he suffered and the way he had been abused. There are so many people, in the world, who believe that they've had it bad, and fair enough some of them may have, but it's nothing compared to this, and i know that its wrong to compare people's trauma because it affect different people in different ways, but once you've read this, you'll know what i mean, but its not even as though you are comparing them to some person in a book, but a real person, who couragously told the world about his real life. He could have easily kept this to himself, like most of us porbably would, but this amazing man, who could have turned the most psychologically retarded person, but thank fully he didn't, otherwise we would not have been given the chance to learn of one man's brave, and amazing energy and will to survive the worst possible trauma someone could be put through.
Finally all i want to say is that this book, is truly an amazing journey to read, and it makes you look at things in a different perspective, and it makes you see just how un - perfect this world in which we live in is. There are children similar to Dave, and Daves book seems to have spoken for many of those poor souls - who, all they want is love and comfort.
This really is a journey of a very brave man, and he is truly inspiring......Deepa
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Summary: A Wonderful Book!
Review: This story of a man overcoming his horrible and challenging childhood will put tears into your eyes. The thought of a man being able to overcome such a defeat will always baffle me. This book is the finale in a series of three books about his awful childhood in California. He writes in this book about his adult life and overcoming his awful fears that are always with him. One of the worst child abuse cases ever known, he has a lot of growing and forgiving to do. He has to forgive his mother who beat him, and made his life so horrible. He has to come to reality that his father is dying and there is nobody to care and watch, as his dad dies all alone. He has to come to grips with life having to raise his son and become a successful father and person in this world. This remarkable story will touch anyone who reads it and will always make you feel lucky. The triumphs that he overcomes just by getting out of the "Hell House" are remarkable. He becomes his own person and successfully joins the air force and starts his family with more love then anyone ever could give. His love for his son comes from deep in and there will always be a bond between them. He overcomes things in life by finding new things to love. He wants to love his son with more love than anything in this world. He wants him to know the love that he himself never knew. A book that will surely touch the heart of all it's readers. A star is to be born in the new author David Pelzer
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Summary: Dave is admirable - EXCEPT for FORGIVING EVIL
Review: I've seen a number of people mention their admiration that Dave has forgiven his mother, yet their disgust at the criminality of his father for "not doing something". I find this both perplexing and nauseating, because it's a warped outlook. If they have disgust with the latter, they should DOUBLY condemn the principle of forgiving evil! Dave, of all people (who has the status of hero to so many) ought NOT to spread the message that it's OK to forgive evil, which his mother personified. That's a warped message to be spreading, since people who forgive evil are liable eventually to be callous to good people. Part I VERY MUCH admire: The fact that, even though Dave had been put through hell, yet he summoned up the excruciatingly-difficult objectivity necessary in dealing with and rectifying a callous world. Why? So that the *world* could handle it. Yet I bet the vast majority of the world, had they been in his shoes, would have self-pitied, self-destructed, or turned criminal. THEORY: WAS HIS MONSTER-MOM PERHAPS POSSESSED BY EVIL ENTITIES DUE TO ALCOHOLISM?? This might explain why Dave's dad was so deathly afraid of his wife - maybe she had superhuman strength during possession? Who can imagine what dire consequences an evil entity (speaking via his wife) might have threatened him with? (I read that the Son of Sam serial killer admitted to Father Malachi Martin that he'd been possessed. So my theory is not that farfetched!
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