A Child Called “It”
By: Kanysha R.


A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer, is a heart-touching story about how he was abused by his unstable mother from the age of seven to twelve.
Dave is an American Entrepreneur and author of three memoirs, one being A Child Called “It”, and one self-help book. He is best known for this book which was published in 1995. Pelzer was born in San Francisco, California and is the third born of five boys. He was mistreated by his mother, who thought it all was a cruel game.
The inspiration of this story is the willpower Pelzer showed to survive, even when he was close to death. The intended audience of this book would be anyone thirteen and over, because it really makes people think, and would give people a different aspect of child abuse in the world.
There are three main characters of this book; Dave, his mother, and his father. Dave is a little boy who thinks that all the abuse that he is receiving is because he is a “Bad” boy. He is also a strong little boy to be able to go through all that abuse and never say a word. The mother is a cruel, mean, and horrible person. She is unstable and is a drunk. And last the father is a weak person and feeds in to all the mother does, he barely stays home and when he is home he does nothing really about the abuse.
Pelzer’s mother wasn’t always cruel and mean. There was a point in his life when they were all a happy family. They went on vacation every year and did things as a family. Once Dave’s mother started drinking and his father started staying away more, things began to worsen. His mother no longer looked at him as her son but as a slave, and no longer a boy but an “It. She played cruel “games” with him. She let him go days without eating, made him drink ammonia, putting him in a gas chamber of ammonia and Clorox, and even went as far to stabbing him. Dave is a lonely boy in that house, his father sometimes fed him on the low, but once his mother found out, that came to a stop. Dave’s father always told him that he would one day get the both of them out the house so they could be free, but he never fulfilled that promise to Pelzer.

This is a book that would leave you speechless, an unforgettable account of severe abuse to a young child which left him nearly dead. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive’ his dreams of being taken away and having someone caring and loving for him, and to call him their son.

The book really touches you because it’s in the style of a child. A child is telling the whole story and it’s really heartfelt to hear child abuse from a child point of view. The author is very descriptive and makes sure you can vision what is happening. He uses all language he can, he is very versatile.
Everyone who reads this will enjoy it. People who have been abused will especially enjoy because they have someone who can relate to what they been through.
This is not appropriate for young under the age of 13 people because it has graphic things in it. People who have abused people would not approve of it because they might feel like they are being exposed.
This is a book that you should take time out of your day to sit and really read. See what your reaction is.