A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive by Dave Pelzer

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it."

Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.

I've just read two different articles about Pelzer's work, and now my take is: I am glad I read this book, and I enjoyed it, but I'm not going to read the rest of them. Certain quotes disturbed me:

But there is a creepier reason for Pelzermania. He has turned child abuse into entertainment. Pelzer likes to be known as the guy who “makes child abuse fun.” He repeatedly refers to himself as “Robin Williams in glasses.” His public appearances are manic and joking, filled with imitations of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Clinton. He craves a career in stand-up comedy. (If Schadenfreude is joy at others' sorrow, what is joy at your own?)

Pelzer frequently purchases his own books for his signings at a discount and then sells them at list price. It is not clear whether these sales alone keep his books on the best-seller lists. The big bookselling chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders, as well as huge stores like Wal-Mart and online sellers like Amazon, refuse to release specific sales numbers. So if they sell 10,000 copies of ‘‘A Child Called ‘It''' in a week, there is no way to know whether that was made up of bulk sales or the combined individual sales from all their stores. Still, those 10,000 books would be tallied for best-seller purposes.

A hard book to read. Horrific story. It did a good job of telling the story but I wanted to know WHY. Why was this boy treated so terribly when his brothers were not. I'm moving onto the second book so I'm hoping for some of those answers.

4/5
Incredible insight to David's childhood of extreme child abuse. This book is an extremely difficult read because of the content, but it is something important for people to read in order to get just a glimpse into the life of an abused child.

Update: This book has stuck with me a while since reading it. Because of this, I gave it an extra star. I often find myself throughout my day, dwelling on the horrific events that occurred in this book. This book is not for the weak, that's for sure, but I do suggest reading it to understand what abuse could look like & understand what some children go though. If you do read it, I promise you will never forget it.