Please post your tech step 6 project here.Be sure to include the 5 areas that were highlighted in the Book Review Template. Remember they are: Introduction, Description and summary of main points, Evaluation, Conclusion, and Final Review.
The autobiography, A Child Called It, is a great book about a young boy’s life as he is abused and treated with disrespect. This is a true story and is written by Dave Pelzer himself. The story takes place in Daly, California. Most of the abuse in this book takes place in the home but, he experiences bullying at school because of his clothes and poor hygiene. He cannot help this because he rarely showers at home.
In this book, poor Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten by his sick, cruel, alcoholic mother. His mother played sick and tortuous games that were unfair because 7 year old Dave could not defend himself. Some of the things she did included lock him in a room with a bottle of Clorox and ammonia. This caused a gas chamber effect because there was nowhere for the gas to escape. Other times she would fill the bathtub up with ice cold water and completely submerge himself so he could not breathe. She held him down for a minute at the least and did it repeatedly. Next are the burns. One day when Dave came home from school his mother, Catharine, was waiting for him to walk into the kitchen. She would force his arm over the open fire on the gas stove. In this chapter Dave describes that he could smell the burning flesh from his arm that was being burned and blistered. One random night, Catharine made Dave sleep on the top bunk bed. The next morning Dave’s mom was furious with him for being a “bad boy.” She was drunk more than she had ever been before. She was beating Dave so hard that after a few hits his arm snapped right in half. This way she could say he fell off the top bunk and broke his arm.
At the beginning of the abuse his mother would not beat Dave as bad when he was with his dad. In this case, his father was kind of like a protector or a guardian. But as time went on and Dave got bigger things got worse and worse. By the time Dave was he was in the third grade his mom no longer cared about the dad. She would beat Dave like she would any other time. If the dad attempted to stand up to the mother it would only make things worse. She was almost if she was fueled by her anger at the father to beat young Dave.
I think this is a great book; there are many life lessons you can take and learn from in the story. Although there were many I believe that alcohol was the biggest part. In the story alcohol makes the mother do things that maybe she wouldn’t have done if she wasn’t drinking so much. Alcohol can play mind tricks with you; it will control your body practically if you drink too much for your body to handle. Each day at 1 o’ clock the parents would have a happy hour which was really a happy night because they would drink all night till they went to bed.
In conclusion to this horrifying story of a young boys life, and how he was abuse since the first grade. This story will make you realize what is happening in this world. As you can see this is only one of the many physical abuse cases in the United States and all over the world. Only you have the power to control is, one child at a time.
I give this autobiography by Dave Pelzer a five start rating due to his descriptive writing and how he describes his life.
The title of the book I am reviewing is called "A Child Called It". The book was written by an author named David Pelzer. The book takes place in a neighborhood in Daly City, California, in 1973. The book is an autobiography and was proclaimed "The worst recorded case of child abuse in history". I have never read anything like it, though that is partially because I don't tend to read books like this. The author of the book was also the object of abuse in the book. The forms of avuse described in the story sicken me in more ways than one, and only make my already disapproving opinion of society even worse. The first chapter describes how David was taken from his home and "freed". The second chapter describes how wonderful his life had once been, after that, things get ugly. The biggest abuser in the story is David's mother, and is reffered to throughout the story by only two names: Mother, and The B(if you think I am typing the whole word in think again). David is known throughout the story mainly as The Boy, but at the end finally becomes just "It". David's mother abused David in many ways, most of them sick, twisted torture survival challenges that DAvid's mother reffered to as "games". These "games" are sick and twisted in the way that I represent them with an image of a frightening demented circus clown with an ugly face and a sense of reality not lost, but rather hideously distorted far beyond repair. In simpler terms, it is almost as if throughout the story David's mother slowly goes from being a despicable human, to a literal monster who was once human but who's mind is so twisted and distorted that its owner is literally no longer human. There wer other means of torture as well. One of David's mother's favorites were starvation, beatings, and several one-time-only torture treatments intended to cause David to feel excrutaitingly in pain. These treatments were also desighned to damage David emotionally, scar him, lower his self esteem, and do other mental damage. David's mother also stabbed David, broke his arm, and, to make sure he only ate what she gave him, forced him to vomit all his food after school every day so she could examine it and ensure he hadn't stolen something. Before David's mother began torturing him that way, she used something called the corner treatment. The corner treatment seemed like an ordinary time out I'm sure, but I also garuntee that it was worse, I just can't think of how. This book is not for people who scare easily. If you are a small child or someone who is frightened extremely easily, I don't advise reading it. It is a good book overall however. Though it does get graphic, I recommend it for readers who can handle that kind of gore. I am already trying to get the sequel. This book is an excellent, sometimes frightening(or in my case sickening on multiple levels) story, and reading it might give you a little change in perspective: maybe your life isn't that bad after all. Though David was put through things that would cause most people to give up and quit, David held out. I probably would have behaved similarly if I were in that situation. If I didn't behave similarly, I would have fought back immediatly when the beatings began, and probably won too. One warning though. When you read this don't be surprised when you start feeling sick to your stomach, or stat crying or something. I give "A Child Called It" 4.9 stars
The book I read was titled A Child Called “It”. The author of this book is David Peltzer, also the main character in the book. Similarly, it is written in the autobiography genre. The book is totally true, and the setting took place in Daly City, CA; where David used to live. The story is very famous, and many people know about it, hence it’s a “New York Times”, “USA Today”, and international bestseller. A Child Called “It” has many important and shocking events. David Peltzer is an extremely descriptive writer in the ways he tells about his abuse. To begin, Dave started with the present telling how he finally got free from his mother, and then starts the story of his history as a flashback. Accordingly, he had two brothers, a stay at home mom, and a hard working dad. His dad, Stephen, was his hero. Dave had a very nice family. Later, as time went on, David’s mother started acting odd. This was the result of is mom, Catherine, becoming an alcoholic. Soon, Catherine was beating David; saying he favored his father over her. She stopped caring and released her anger on the seven-year-old Dave. Catherine keeps this from Stephen for a while, but when he finds out, he’s too afraid to act. After this, the abuse escalates. Catherine starves him, burns him, beats him, feeds him toxic chemicals, gasses him, makes him sleep on the floor like a dog, eat dog scraps, and other things that are absolutely disgusting. Through David’s life, he’d try to steal food for himself, but got a bad reputation from it. Also, few teachers tried to help him, but help didn’t really come until fifth grade. To evaluate this book, I didn’t “enjoy” reading David’s horrendous story, but it really does teach you to be aware of what’s happening to some abused kids around the world. I have never heard anything this vulgar and terrible being done to a child that young. Briefly, it’s really extraordinary how Dave always kept himself hopeful; looking at the bright side constantly. In any case, A Child Called “It” is just a completely raw book. David Peltzer didn’t sugar-coat anything that happened to him. It must’ve been really hard for Dave to write this book because his alcoholic mother basically lost her mind. Also, his hero of a dad sat by and watched his son suffer for years. Hearing the things that happened to a little boy in elementary and middle school in such vivid detail is a violent wake-up call. In conclusion, I do recommend this book to read. If I had to rate it, I’d give it five stars. On the contrary, I didn’t like reading this book because David’s story is just sad; his family fell apart. However, the way he kept his faith is inspirational. My only recommendation is to not read this if you don’t have a strong stomach. Abby Wadsworth 1/2
The most heart- breaking and devastating story I have ever read has to be The Child Called It. This autobiography was very well written by Dave Pelzer. He uses an amazing use of details that gives you a vivid picture of what’s going on. His words can make you feel grief, pain, and any other sense of emotion. The Child Called It, takes place in Daly City California in 1971. The only way I can describe this book is by saying that it’s a rollercoaster ride. It’ll make you angry, miserable, and confused all simultaneously. This manuscript, I believe, will change your life. David’s mom, Catherine, was an amazing mother. She loved all her children and her husband, all the while treating them right. But, one day she traded that in for being an alcoholic and abuser. Catherine started having issues with her husband, Stephen, and took it out on his favorite child, David. She went absolutely crazy. For example, she made David sit on a burning stove, smeared a baby’s diaper in his face, made him eat his own vomit, while simultaneously beating him constantly. Catherine’s names that were given to David went from Dave, to “The Boy”, to “It”. David was never allowed to eat or change his clothes, and by the way, no one even noticed! He got teased and bullied at school, abused at home, and hated by himself. Sadly, Stephen no longer tried to help David by talking to his wife, but just sat back and watched. At this time, David no longer had respect for his father and hated him more out of everyone in the family. This abuse lasted from 1st grade to the 5th, when he was finally set free. The Child Called It does an amazing thing, and that’s make you realize that you are blessed. It definitely composes you to think about the people who may have it worse and to be grateful. In my opinion, that’s the greatest message that any story can give. On the other hand, though, Dave Pelzer uses a pretty full amount of cursing in this book. I understand that he wants us to feel what he feels, and that he was getting this off his chest, but I could’ve done without the many explicit words. As a result, that was the only down side in this book. As you may tell, this story is pretty intense and powerful. It’ll make you angry and frustrated, while simultaneously sending an amazing message. The Child Called It will hopefully make you realize the things that you have and be grateful for them. But, be aware of the curse words, they may be overwhelming for you, yet all in all, a powerful story. This book is life- changing. The powerful situation that Dave has to go through over comes the curse words. As a result, I give it five stars and recommend it to middle school and older audiences. The foul language and details may be overwhelming to anyone younger. Yet, great book!
The outstanding book A Child Called It was written by David Peltzer. This autobiography was very vivid and graphic. The antagonist of this book is the evil Catherine Rosevera. She was the mother of the protagonist, and six year old boy, David Peltzer. The whole story took place in Daly City, California in 1971. This number one international best seller is a heart throb, and must be read by everyone. You need to learn of how lucky you really are. In this story, the main points are very horrific, but some were not so bad. For example, as if this poor child hadn’t had enough physical abuse, he was to clean up after the family members ate. Even though he never was allowed to eat, he would still do it. His father would help with the dishes, which was a good point to the story. There weren’t very many other good points in the book, which is very upsetting. Now, let me tell you about the abusive points. One example is when his mother would starve him. Not any human being can survive without food, and she did this to him for ten days straight. The worst off all was that the little six year old boy received love from no one. I can’t even imagine what that is like. This book was a very life lesson learning book. It’s is an extremely good book for the children above the age of twelve. Sometimes the language is very foul, but a lot of the times it is very easy to look past. Also, some of his punishments were very descriptive, and kind of made me gag. I recommend this book to whoever wants to read it. You have to read this book for the lessons it brings out of it. The kids at school bully him so much, but they don’t know what goes on at home. I t teaches you to stop the bullying. Another lesson is that if you are being abused, go out and get help. David should have notified someone, and maybe the beatings would have stopped. I f you are being abused, contact someone immediately. All and all, this non-fiction book is great. Not only the stories, but the lessons it teaches. It gives visual details, more than any other book I’ve read. I give this book four stars.
A Child Called It is written by David Pelzer. This book is an autobiography. David wrote this book to inform readers of his dreadful childhood past. Pelzer was treated horribly starting at the young age of seven. In the story there are seven chapters. The chapters range from twelve to forty pages each. The first chapter actually occurs lastly. Therefore the book is a flashback. The rather fantastic book took place in Daily City, CA in the year of 1971. David starts out as a normal child in a rather happy family. Almost a too good too be true family. The parents have three children and by the ends of the book five. Rarely any problems occurred at the residence. One day mother, Catherine Roerva, Got a little jealous of dad, Steven Pelzer. Mother was very close with all of the kids except David. David appeared to be closer to dad than her. She greatly despised this action because David liked Dad more. She decided to punish him for this. Each punishment gradually got worse by the day. Mother got so angry she stabbed him, broke his arm, burned him, and many other horrific events. The worst one is the gas chamber. As dreadful as it sounds, it is terribly worse. Mother read about this in the newspaper, first she mixed ammonia and Clorox bleach into a bucket. A chemical reaction occurs, and a grayish colored gas swirls into the air killing brain cells and smelling terrible are not the worst of the emulsion, sitting in a small closed in bathroom breathing the gas made David’s throat ache and bleed while being raw. This is VILE! I would say this book is a good one if you have a box of tissues near and no sympathy pains, you have to read this book to understand his great agony. On a scale of one to five stars i give it a five! This book is not a choice of mine, but I am truly glad I read it to understand a more clear view of the importance of life. The incredible amount of bullying is unimaginable. If you or a friend I strongly advise you get help. YOU ARE IMPORTANT! The book overall is very heart felt and very descriptive, therefore you feel as if you are David. The book tells of many horrific actions and sessions of pain. Overall you should buy the book! I highly recomend you order it now or stop at a store to buy it.
The book my class recently read was "A Child Called It" by David Pelzer. It's an autobiography about a young boy named David that was abused during his childhood!
In the book "A Child Called It" there many terrible things that happened to David! David was abused for almost 5 years and suffered many things that I couldn't even imaging going through! David was set aside from the family and was told that he wasn't part of the family anymore. David was abused in crazy, non forgettable ways! His mother burnt him on a stove, made a gas chamber, broke his arm, stabbed him, and many other things! The amazing thought about that though is that he fought to survive and managed to beat his mother in her own game. David went through names that started with "The Boy" and end the ended up being called "It". After all this and even before things got to be worse he felt like everyone had giving up on him and no one cared or loved him at all! He had to find away to get his own food, that happened every three days possibly! If not he starved for up to ten days at one point without any food! After all of this abusement he went through he was set free in the end and never saw his mother again!
I would say this is a good book for kids my age to read because of the suspense and the murals of the book! It can teach you a lot, and make you want to help other, and treat people the way they should be treated!
In conclusion of this suspenseful book, I'd say it is a really good book to read and especially for it being an autobiograghy! You can learn a lesson from this book if you pay attention to whats going on and what it is saying! I'd recommend this book for others to read, because it is a really good book.
I really like this book, and I'd say positive things about it. So the rating would be good.
The title of this story is a child called it and its one child’s courage to survive. The author who wrote this story is Dave Pelzer and in this story they have a lot of cuss words in this book. The genre for this story would be true because the mom abuses one of her sons and the son was trying to fight for his will to survive. The setting in this book took place in Daly City California and the mom is named Mrs. Pelzer and the dad is named Mr. Pelzer.
This story takes place in Daly City California and the mom abuses one of her sons and she beats him and she lets him starve to death everyday without any food. The boy sleeps on a army cot down in the basement where its cold and the boys clothes are dirty and the boys family is poor.
I think this story is good and it should have 5 stars because this book is the #1 international bestseller book. And the boy that gets abused in this story is trying to fight his way to survive. Dave Pelzer is the dad of the three sons the two sons don’t get abused but the one son does.
The summary would be about David how he gets abused so much from his mom. The mom doesn’t let him eat food and he goes to school and steals food from other people’s lunchbox and the food he steals is Twinkies. Then the mom said to David go take a bath and the mom held David underwater until he couldn’t breathe. Then the mom wiped baby poop in David’s face and then he had to eat his vomit he threw up.
I think this story ‘s rating is 5 stars because it’s good and sad but it’s the #1 international bestseller book. I love this book but I feel bad for the son that gets abused. The mother does crazy stuff to her son she burns him and he ears vomit and starves to death and takes a bath in the mom holds him underwater until he cant breathe. David goes outside and freezes to death and he rides his skates up and down the hill and then the mom and dad get divorced. 2nd and 3rd period
The gruesome novel, A Child Called “It,” is an autobiography about one child’s abuse from his mother. By the way, his mother was an alcoholic. The alcohol, for the most part, took into account for the abuse. This true story is written by David Pelzer. It explains how he was beaten and basically tortured by his mother, Catherine Pelzer. This novel helped create laws to protect abused children. The story takes place in Daly City, California.
At first, David’s “mother,” was your average American mother. Then, her drinking got worse. By now, the abuse had begun. She was a wicked witch to him. No matter what good he did, she would never be proud or acknowledge him in any way. She gave him “punishments” all of the time, for no reason. David would be the best he could be, but she still beat him. As the drinking progressed, as well did the levels of punishments. For example, she would knock him around for a good amount of time. She would also shove his face in his little brother’s poop-filled diaper. One of the worst things his mother would do to him was the starvation. She was so cold and heartless that she would starve him. Once, she starved him for ten straight days! I am just unable to comprehend how she could treat her child this crude. Another harsh treatment was when she would concoct a mixture of Clorox and ammonia. She put the mixture into a bucket and set it into the bathroom. After that, she would force David into the room, and make him sit in there for a while. His eyes would burn and his face would sting. David would hardly be able to breathe. There are just so many different punishments to name. Isn’t that so sad and depressing? The abuse carried on for a few years. In time, his principal caught on and finally gave him the help he needed. He was then free.
On the contrary, there were so many life lessons learned. First of all, over the years, he has unleashed courage that he never knew he had in him. I am telling you this guy is tough. He also had gained intelligence. He would sometimes out smart his “mother.” That helped him get through some of his beatings. I think he also gained hope at some point in time, but overtime, he lost it all.
David’s “mother” was extremely abusive toward him in his childhood years. David had four brothers, but she never abused them. No one will ever know exactly why she abused just him. Not only did she hurt him physically, but mentally and emotionally. By the way, his parents were married, but his dad did squat. His father just let it happen. The beatings and “punishments” progressed as his mother’s drinking progressed. He was utterly tortured for multiple years.
I give this novel a rating of 8 because it was really graphic, but at the same time it made me tear up, and it wasn’t really bad
"A child called It" is a true story about a boy named David Pelzer who was abused by his mother most of his childhood. He wrote the book himself and describes what his childhood was like. His descriptions are extremely vivid of the horrible thi ngs his mother did to him as a child.
For example when he was little his mom read about a woman putting her child on the stove so she did it to David. One of the worst thing I think she dd to him was make him eat his baby brothers poop and the stress of having to sleep on the garage floor with nothing to cover up with but some newspaper.
The book was very good even though it tells a bad story. For some reason this was my favorite book read in class. I could imagine every part I wanted to because of David's vivid descriptions. I think the book was really good.I don't like what hi mom did to him.
In the begining David's mom was really nice and perfect to him. They went on vacation even. Then one day his mom changed and became an alcoholic and very abusive to him. She only abused David not any other of his siblings like him. He did a lot of chores took a beating from his mom as his dad watched and didn't say a word.When David got to eat he didn't eat much. For breakfast he sometimes got to eat his brothers leftover cereal. For lunch he ate two peanut butter sandwiches and some carrot sticks. He stole food from other kids until he got caught then he tried going to people's houses and then stealing from hot lunch at school and a grocery store. When he was in fifth grade finally his wish came true they took him away from his mother.
Like I said the book was very good. I didn't like the things his mother did to him. His descriptions were very good and it was my favorite book we readin school.
A Child Called “It” is an autobiography of David Pelzer’s life. This horrible incident occurred in Daly City California and the abuse ended in 1973. The actual abuse occurred in his mother’s house, mostly in the basement, bathroom, and kitchen. This is known as one of the worst cases of child abuse ever recorded in the United States. From gas chambers to being beaten to being starved and stabbed, this is what David’s life was like for many years. And that is not even close to the number of ways David’s mother abused and tortured him. This book is a flashback on David’s life. The beginning of the book tells about the day David has at school. Then it starts the flashback as he is riding in the police car being taken away from school. The flashback starts with how David’s mother was before she became abusive. Then, she started drinking, and it all got way out of control. After that, starts the abuse. There was the mirror treatment, beatings, non-stop chores, moving to the basement, gas chambers, almost-drowning, being stabbed, starved, and more. David was forced to lie on top of the hot stove. The only way he avoided it was by provoking it until his father returned home from work. One day, a lady stopped by the house from social services. She was there to inspect David’s living conditions. David said one thing wrong and he was beaten and screamed at for it. When his grandmother was expected to come in a few days, David’s mom started treating him like he was actually part of the family again. After his grandma left everything went back to normal. One day, after wanting to for so many years, David’s father left the house. After that, everything went downhill fast. The only thing David had going for him were his bruises that made the teachers suspect that he may need to be removed from his mother’s home. This book was the saddest book I have ever read. It was a very good book though. Before I read this book I did not know a whole lot about child abuse. I knew it happened but I didn’t know some cases could be this bad. This book is hard to get through once you start reading about all the different ways his mother abused him. Some parts of it are absolutely disgusting. It’s even worse that his own name was taken away from him. All he was to his mother was an It. A worthless thing she called an “It”. The entire book made me question why someone would even think of doing this to someone else let alone a defenseless child. I would recommend this book to another person though. A Child Called “It” is an autobiography of David Pelzer’s life. It is one of the worst recorded cases of child abuse in the United States. This book is a flashback on David’s life. It starts with David being taken away from his mother. Then, tells what a great mom he had before alcohol took over her life and she became an abuser. Next, it tells about all of David’s abuse. This is a good book but is very hard to read. This book is a great autobiography by David Pelzer, about his journey to survive one of the worst cases of child abuse ever; I would give it four out of five stars.
One Book that everyone over the age of eleven needs to read at some point in their life is A Child Called “It” by David “Dave” Pelzer. A Child Called “It” takes place in Daly City, California near San Francisco, California. A Child Called “It” is an amazing book in its own strange way. It’s one of the well-written books I’ve ever read. For example, A Child Called “It” is about David Pelzer and the miserable events called his childhood. David Pelzer was a child about the age of four or five when his mother, Christina Roerva started abusing him. As David became older, Christina became more creative with her punishments that she referred to as “games.” She would have David clean her entire house and beat him up or treat him to a variety of deadly punishments. Some of the harsh punishments include the ice cold water game, the “you have two minutes to eat” game, the ammonia-Clorox game, or other various, new games. The ice cold water game was a an unusual form of abuse in which Christina would fill the bathtub full of cold water, leave David in the tub until he was shriveled like a raisin in the sun, and before he had time to dry, she would force him outside, opposite of the sun, in the shade. The “you have two minutes to eat” game consisted of Christina starving David for several consecutive days and eventually Christina would sit out leftover food and tell David “you have two minutes to eat.” Then, she would make fun of the way he ate like an animal. When mother had enough time, David would receive the worst punishment of all, the ammonia-Clorox game. Christina would fill a large bucket with a mixture of ammonia, Clorox, and water and she would tell David to go clean the bathroom. After closing the door for the harmful fumes to swirl around the room and damage David’s internals, she’d open the door and order David to dispose of the concoction. Also his mother didn’t give David very high living standards. David didn’t have a nice bed or nice clothes. He slept on either an old army cot or in his father’s bed. David’s clothes were tattered and ripped; he describes his clothes a Swiss cheese because they have so many holes. Although the summary sounds dismal, dreadful, and dubious, I would recommend the book, A Child Called “It” to anyone as long as they can handle lots of pain and depression. Also, I would not recommend this book under the age of eleven or twelve. In conclusion to my descriptive review of the book, A Child Called "It," I would give this book a five out of five stars.
David Peltzer's tear-jerking autobiography, "A Child Called It" , takes place in Daly City, California. This heartbreaking story is about one boys courage to survive his mothers' games. The book also takes place in the year 1971. I'm sure that writing this compelling book had to have been very emotion filled. Talking about your life is one thing, but talking about such a dark past... I couldn't do it. My heart goes out to this amazing author and his bravery. David Peltzer had a normal family life. He had a beautiful and loving mother, an amazing father and two older brothers. He thought his life was perfect...and he thought wrong. Soon enough, alcohol was a problem in the house, and so was David. He was abused in ways you wouldn't believe. But his mother thought of the abuse as "games". David was just like a piece on a game board. Catherine, David's mother, was always drunk and she only beat David. One day, while David is home alone with his mother, she makes him strip his clothes and go to the kitchen. She talks to David for a moment and while she is talking, she turns on the burners on the stove. She then grabs David's arm and holds it over the open flame. Catherine tells David to lay on all four burners, so she can watch him burn. When he refuses she repeatedly beats him until his older brother comes home. She then tosses him in the basement like a piece of trash. He realizes, if he can beat her at her own game once, he can do it again, and has a chance at surviving. David's mother starves him for 10 days straight, taunting him with glimpses and scents of food. Catherine makes David drink ammonia. Also, she breaks him arm, and stabs him in the stomach. Finally David is set free and is taken to foster care. This book is very good. It's breathtaking with all of the descriptions. Sometimes it's stomach turning. I give this book 5 incredible stars for such a dramatic story. I recommend reading "A Child Called It", to any 7th or 8th grade classes. Also, if not in class, I recommend reading it personally. Summarizing this story is no problem. But getting into such detail as is done in the book, may be tricky. I'm just going to say, if I were David, I would try to escape the first chance I got. I would die if I were starved, beaten, drowned, humiliated, etc. I wouldn't know how to handle it. He was tortured so much, yet remained so strong. David may have lost faith, but he once again regained it when he was set free. In conclusion, this is a very amazing book, and I would love to read the sequel. I give the book a 5 star, 100% rating. The moral or theme of this story, is, Stay strong, keep faith, and keep your head up, cause everything will be ok.
This book The Child Called “It” is an autobiography written by the author David Peltzer. It took place in Daly, California. This book is one of the first books written about child abuse in America. It is considered to be the worst recorded child abuse in America. Consequently, this book had caused laws to be made that we follow today.
In this book, the mother of David was not always an abusive person. In the beginning she was a nice, caring human being who would cook, clean and buy her family new clothing. David was able to play outside with his brothers and was able to watch television. The abuse started out of nowhere. David had come in from outside and smiled at his mother then reached out for a hug and that was when she had swung her fist at him. After that, the abuse would just keep getting worse. She would make David sit in front of the mirror and say that he is a bad boy. Then she had started smashing his face into the glass of the mirror while he still would be saying that he was a bad boy, causing intense pain. He would sleep in the garage on an army cot. His first grade year, his mother had held him back a year because she said that he was a bad boy. Later on, she would go without feeding him for a long period of time. This caused him to steal food from his classmates’ lunchboxes. He would eventually get caught by his mother and would get beat even more. For example, she had broken his arm and she had him sleep on the top of the bunk bed so that she could tell people that he fell off of the top. His mother then started putting time limits on his chores, and if the chores were not completed within the time limit, he would not get any dinner; therefore, he never ate dinner. His mother had gotten bored of the old beatings and started to think of more interesting ways to torture him. For instance, one time he was yelled at by his mother because she wanted him to lie on a burning stove. He refused, and she was trying to force him. He pulled away but his arm had burned. His arm was bubbling and red, while he could smell the aroma of burning flesh. Another was when he was doing the dishes and she had a knife in her hand. David got stabbed and his mother had patched up the slit poorly. When she was done she told him to go finish the dishes. At school, David had gone from stealing food to running from house to house asking for food. Coincidently, one of the people that he asked had known his mother, and he then received more punishments. She then thought of the gas chamber treatment which involved her mixing ammonia and Clorox together inside a bucket and sticking him in a closed room with the bucket. After a while she would open the door and smack him on the back then leave the room. This went along with the bathtub treatment where she told him to lay in a freezing cold bathtub while holding his head under the water for a very long time. The next time that he went to school, his principal called the police and they took David away and he never saw his mother again.
I think that this book is very detailed. I like this book, I give it five stars. The book itself is good, not the things that happened in it though. I am mad at the mother for what she had done to David.
This book is about a young boy who discovers abuse at a young age. He was very strong by not letting his mothers beatings get the best of him. The mother was a psycho and the father would not do anything to help his son.
I recommend this book to everyone, but don’t be mad at me if you don’t like it.
The book that I read is "A Child Called It" by David Peltzer, which is also the main character in the story. The genre of this story is an autobiography that takes place back in the seventies. The story is about a young boy, David Peltzer who lived in Daly City, California. It's about his struggle to survive the terrible abuse from his mother. This story will puzzle you, because of the way his mother plays her tricks left and right through the story.
At first, in the beginning of the story, it started off as if it were the end of the story. It explains how he finally escaped this nightmare that went on since he was four years old. He experienced on his own, his mother's horrible games that she played with him that rewarded him with life sustaining things. For example, she burned him on the gas stove, punched him as hard as she could, gave gas treatments, and ice cold baths. You may wonder about his father, who doesn't man up and help his son through all of this. So for the most part, his mother controls everyone in the household. Meanwhile, he had other siblings, but from his mother's point of view, they were the angels and never caused her problems. Her constant drinking were the cause of her constant abuse. To him, it was a good day when she was sober and controlled, but when she was drunk she thought up horrible ways to hurt him. In any event, his tactic was to never give in to her games. If he did, she would feel a sense of victory.
It wasn't always like this before the abuse, their family was great and his mother was like a blessing. They went on trips all throughout California. David was allowed to speak,and play with his brothers. On Christmas day, they took turns every year right after they decorated the tree, one of them were picked to have the honor of planting the star on the tree.
In summary, he is loved at first and treated just like all his other siblings. Then his mother started to drink constantly and slowly turns on David out of the rest of the siblings. She starts to think of games to play with him and abuse him badly. She started to punch him and even broke his arm. She would make him the slave and do chores for food and permission for certain actions.
In the final analysis I would recommend this book, because it teaches life lessons. For instance, it is a reminder of how lucky we are to have loving families that love and care about you. For our age, in the eighth grade it's a perfect book to read ,but may be a little too much for younger kids. This could be considered one of the worst abuse cases in the state of California and would probably scar a person's life forever. Instead, David took all that he's been through and turned it in to power and confidence that helped him lead a successful life.
A Child Called It is written by David Pelzer. This book is an autobiography. David wrote this book to inform readers of his dreadful childhood past. Pelzer was treated horribly starting at the young age of seven.
In the story there are seven chapters. The chapters range from twelve to forty pages each. The first chapter actually occurs lastly. Therefore the book is a flashback. The rather fantastic book took place in Daily City, CA in the year of 1971. David starts out as a normal child in a rather happy family. Almost a too good too be true family. The parents have three children and by the ends of the book five. Rarely any problems occurred at the residence. One day mother, Catherine Roerva, Got a little jealous of dad, Steven Pelzer. Mother was very close with all of the kids except David. David appeared to be closer to dad than her. She greatly despised this action because David liked Dad more. She decided to punish him for this. Each punishment gradually got worse by the day. Mother got so angry she stabbed him, broke his arm, burned him, and many other horrific events. The worst one is the gas chamber. As dreadful as it sounds, it is terribly worse. Mother read about this in the newspaper, first she mixed ammonia and Clorox bleach into a bucket. A chemical reaction occurs, and a grayish colored gas swirls into the air killing brain cells and smelling terrible are not the worst of the emulsion, sitting in a small closed in bathroom breathing the gas made David’s throat ache and bleed while being raw. This is VILE!
I would say this book is a good one if you have a box of tissues near and no sympathy pains, you have to read this book to understand his great agony. On a scale of one to five stars I give it a five! This book is not a choice of mine, but I am truly glad I read it to understand a more clear view of the importance of life. The incredible amount of bullying is unimaginable.
If you or a friend I strongly advise you get help. YOU ARE IMPORTANT! The book overall is very heart felt and very descriptive, therefore you feel as if you are David.
The book tells of many horrific actions and sessions of pain. Overall you should buy the book! I highly recomend you order it now or stop at a store to buy it.
The outstanding book A Child Called It was written by David Peltzer. This autobiography was very vivid and graphic. The antagonist of this book is the evil Catherine Rosevera. She was the mother of the protagonist, and six year old boy, David Peltzer. The whole story took place in Daly City, California in 1971. This number one international best seller is a heart throb, and must be read by everyone. You need to learn of how lucky you really are.
In this story, the main points are very horrific, but some were not so bad. For example, as if this poor child hadn’t had enough physical abuse, he was to clean up after the family members ate. Even though he never was allowed to eat, he would still do it. His father would help with the dishes, which was a good point to the story. There weren’t very many other good points in the book, which is very upsetting. Now, let me tell you about the abusive points. One example is when his mother would starve him. Not any human being can survive without food, and she did this to him for ten days straight. The worst off all was that the little six year old boy received love from no one. I can’t even imagine what that is like.
This book was a very life lesson learning book. It’s is an extremely good book for the children above the age of twelve. Sometimes the language is very foul, but a lot of the times it is very easy to look past. Also, some of his punishments were very descriptive, and kind of made me gag. I recommend this book to whoever wants to read it.
You have to read this book for the lessons it brings out of it. The kids at school bully him so much, but they don’t know what goes on at home. I t teaches you to stop the bullying. Another lesson is that if you are being abused, go out and get help. David should have notified someone, and maybe the beatings would have stopped. I f you are being abused, contact someone immediately.
All and all, this non-fiction book is great. Not only the stories, but the lessons it teaches. It gives visual details, more than any other book I’ve read. I give this book four stars.
I read "The Child called it" in class a week or two ago. It is by dave peltzer and is placed in Daly city,california.His mom was really abusive because she was an alcoholic.Nobody would listen to him becasue they all new his mom and she told them that it was just his imagination.
Even though his dad did not abuse him he didn't do anything about it. Whenever david would try ro get him to help he acted like he was afraid of the mother.
Finally after five years someone took action and called the police and they came and picked david up.He probaly had alot of damage to his body and his brain because of the chemicals he had to drink.
A Child Called It is a book by Dave Pelzer. It is a child abuse story that takes place in California 1973. This is one of the most graphic books I have ever read and I would expect that in combat books, but a biography? This is wrong. Moreover I have had some bad instances with my parents, but this is too extreme. If alcohol wasn’t involved, this wouldn’t be the worst recorded child abuse document.
First of all the book begins by Dave being in school and being in the principal’s office. He is being set free from his mother and never seeing her again. Then the rest of the story is a flashback of how he was abused. These include: eating diapers, gas chambers, and burnings of the arm and back. I have been bad by breaking things before, but to get punished like this is not okay. He does everything that Mother asks him to do, but he still gets abused anyway. He has three brothers, two of which that have been brainwashed by Mother to abuse Dave as well. His father does not like what Mother is doing to him, but he can do nothing about it.
Next is how I think of the book. It is a very graphic novel and I would not recommend this book to someone that doesn’t like graphic books, but I would to someone that would be interested in reading this is. Most people didn’t know what child abuse was until this book came along. There should be something learned from all of this. It is that child abuse is one of the most dangerous and saddest things in a child’s life. No one should have to be like that.
In conclusion A Child Called It is the worst case of child abuse in the US and probably the world. It should not be a fate of any child. However it is very graphic and is not for the faint of heart. All in all it was very interesting to read.
This book is called A Child Called It. The author of this book is David Pelzer. He is also the boy who was abused in this book. This novel is informational and contains graphic details. It can be very disturbing in some chapters. For example: his mother, Catherine, tortures him because of his behavior. It all takes place in a normal everyday house in Daly City, California in 1973. Nothing about the location or the house’s appearance seems abnormal.
This book is one of the most heart wrenching books I’ve ever read. I would not have had the strength and will power to survive like David. Putting myself in David’s shoes is almost unimaginable. The torture he suffered was thought about long and hard by his mother. One of the treatments was “The Gas Chamber”. It contained David’s mother mixing a couple of dangerous cleaning chemicals that released harmful fumes in a bucket, and then, placing David in the bathroom with the bucket. At the same time, he was struggling to breathe because of the chemicals. If he would’ve tried to pour the solution down the drain he would’ve been beaten. Another one of the worst treatments was “The Ammonia Drink”. For this treatment, he was forced to swallow a whole spoonful of ammonia, which consequently, caused him to briefly lose his ability to breathe. Other than treatments using chemicals, she also gave him treatments where he was given severe bruises. She gave him “The Mirror Treatment”, which was when David’s mom smashed his face against a mirror multiple times causing him to bleed miserably. She was so angry towards him at one point that she pulled his arm out-of-socket and made up an excuse that he fell off his bunk bed. However, he doesn’t sleep in a bunk bed. He only slept there so she wouldn’t get in trouble. He either slept in the garage on the floor, or underneath the kitchen table. One time he slept in his dad’s bed. David even has to do chores before school. After completing these, he would go to school with chores waiting for him when he returned home. He shouldn’t have had to suffer the abuse. Although, he stole food from the store a couple of times, he was subsequently beaten and suffered more treatments. His mother thought she could get back at her husband by abusing David because whenever his father came home, David would stick with him like glue.
This isn’t my favorite novel, but I did get hooked on it. Every time I ended a chapter, it felt like the book was telling me “keep reading”. Therefore, I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a book to read and is at least thirteen years old. Like I said before, this is a book that contains graphic details. It will be a difficult book to read if this is your first book about abuse. This was my first book about abuse and at first, it was hard to read, but I eventually got used to it.
In conclusion, A Child Called “It” is a depressing novel about a young boy who gets abused. It’s very sad when David gets abused because you can barely imagine it. No one deserves to be abused no matter what they do. I found it to be an interesting novel, but I hope I never have to read another like it. The punishments are very descriptive so you can picture exactly what the treatments were like. In the final analysis, it made me feel like I was a fly on the wall watching him get abused.
I give this book a rating of four out of five stars.
There are many different autobiographies that vary in content and meaning. “A Child called It,” by David Pelzer gives a very rough perspective of life from the point of view of young child who is a victim of child abuse. His story took place in Daly City, California in 1971. David’s treacherous mother was a cruel woman who abused David daily, and she made life for David a struggle to survive. Basically, it is a story about a child’s will to survive.
David was born into a wonderful loving family filled with joy and love. They went on family trips and had lots and lots of fun together. Unfortunately, David’s life did not remain so joyous and fun forever. The relationship between David’s mom, the abuser, and her husband started to drift farther and farther apart. As their relationship severed, she became very aggravated and tried to find a way to relieve her stress. Consequently, she used David as a human punching bag to vent her stress due to the great bond and resemblance David shared with his father. At first, she made David do all the chores, and had somewhat minor punishments for everything he did, good or bad. He was placed in freezing cold water and left to freeze until his skin turned a dark blue that matched the ocean. She broke his arm at one point, and she even stabbed him. He wasn’t even considered a part of the family. Hence, he was separated from the family; he ate alone, left alone in the basement, and was referred to by, “It”. But worst of all, he was even suffocated by being put in a closed room as harmful gases from cleaning solutions filled the air making it almost impossible to breathe. Life for David was very harsh, cruel, and just plain mean. Luckily, David had the will to survive and that’s what kept him alive through all of her torment. In the end, he was taken out of his home and later became a successful young man despite his painful childhood.
“A Child called it,” was literally a life changing experience for me. I had always believed that everyone lived a flawless life with child abuse being only a phrase made up by rumors. But, I now know the truth. Life can be very challenging and hard, and child abuse is a part of reality that needs to be removed. Before David’s story was published, child abuse was not a very big priority or problem in the world. Many children have been saved from child abuse and David’s story is a major reason they are now in safe hands. I now know that we need to watch out for these cases, and I’ve learned not to always judge people by their appearances. David did not dress clean because of his abuse and many children bullied him for this reason. In general, I’ve learned to be thankful because not everyone can has such a privileged life where you are treated fairly and are not abused. I wish that one day child abuse will end.
In my final analysis, I believe that, “A Child called It,” has taught me many valuable lessons from the terrible life experiences that David faced. He was abused by his mother and wasn’t even considered a part of the family. He was nothing but a stress ball David’s mother used to relieve her personal problems. I now know not to judge people by their appearances but by the way they are on the inside. David was not clean, but if his classmates would just learn to understand him for whom he really was, he wouldn’t have been so sad or depressed. I’ve also have been informed of how great an issue child abuse can be. In conclusion, I’ve learned to not judge others, and I need to be more aware of situations around me so I can help in every way possible.
I give, “ A Child called It,” a five star rating because of it valuable life lessons that are necessary for the development of any person of any age and for its amazing content about life.
The book A Child called it is an inspirational auto biography about the life of David Peltzer. The setting of this story is in Daly City, California. This story is a tragedy about how a young boy’s life goes from nearly perfect to one of the worst recorded cases of child abuse in history. This is all due to the foolish actions of David’s mother Catherine Peltzer. Also, for the mother’s idiotic behavior’s caused David’s brothers to turn against him.
In this tragic story, David is abused by his mother every day. It wasn’t always like this for David. For example, Catherine used to make plans for the day all the time. She would also take the family out on vacations. The abuse all started when Catherine and Stephen, Dave’s father, began to fight and drink all the time. David and his dad always had a really close bond together; until, David’s mom started to get angry at David for no apparent reason .So David’s mother decided to start punishing him. It started with her making him stand in the corner for long periods. With time, the punishments began to aggressively get worse and worse. The two abuses that stood out to me the most were the gas chamber and the stove .The gas chamber was made by using a bucket filled of Clorox and ammonia, David was then locked in the bathroom with the door locked, with no breathable air. The stove was just David’s mom simply making him sit on the stove while turned on. David was soon going through all of this without food. Catherine would make him vomit up all his food when he got home from school, just to see if he ate there or not. As a result of Catherine’s idiotic behaviors, David’s dad Stephen soon began to stop coming home. David began to also stop loving his dad as well as his mom and brothers. His brothers even began to hate him and not even acknowledge his presence. They all acted as if he were nothing more than a ground to walk on. Soon, David had no one he could believe, trust, or love. David had even started to believe that God didn’t even love him. David had been abused from the first grade until fifth grade. One day, when Dave got to school, he was sent to the nurse and was checked over and asked questions. After the nurse told the principle all the details of David’s abuse were told to a police officer that soon came to get remove David out of the custody of Catherine. Catherine was informed Dave was not coming home any more. So Finally, for once in David’s life he was officially free from all abuse.
This book was really depressing, but then again it was written excellently. I wouldn’t advise anyone to read this book to anyone because it was so violent and brutal. This book made me realize how child abuse is such a serious case in our world today, which makes me want to take it more seriously.
In conclusion, as you can see the book A Child called it is an inspirational auto biography about the life of David Peltzer. It is a very depressing story, but it makes me want to make a change about a really serious matter. I will give rate this book five stars but only for how it is incredibly written.
"A Child Called It" is a very heart touching book.The events in the book take place in a town outside of San Francisco, called Daly City. In the year of 1971. It's about a little boy named David and his fight for survival against his mother's evil games and tortures punishments. Davids mother was Catherine Roerva & beating him, is what she lived for... David was a young child beaten by his mother so severely, sometimes, he didn't think he was gonna survive the night. From the "Gas Chamber" as his mother called it, to almost being burnt on top of a stove, David had brutal beatings and punsihments day in and day out. For what though exactly? David was a innocent, desperate young boy he craved a wonderful childhood and a loving family that he would never forget. David had 3 brothers and then himself. Even though he never got to play with them and then they ended up turning on him just like his mother, David still cared about them. They were his brothers. Davids dad on the other hand, was his hero. David absolutely cherished his father. For some reason, Davids mother didn't beat him nearly as bad as she did when his father wasn't home...But then, the worst thing happened to David. His father left..Davids memory with his mother when he was a young child was great. She was loving, and caring, and the best mother any child could ask for. What happened to that? Researchers and other people who tried to figure out what was wrong with Davids mother could find no answers accept that she was a raging alcoholic, and she suffered from multiple personality disorder. Davids mother though, didn't beat and torture any of the other kids like she did David. Why? Simply because they believe that David reminded her so much of her ex-husband and thats why she beat David. She took every ounce of anger she had on him, out on David. Honestly, this book is a very tragic and dissapointing childhood of a little boy who deserved nothing but to be loved...Why him he wondered? He was such a good kid & he didn't deserve any of it. My final review of the book is that it was a very heartfelt book and I do recommend it to people of all ages. Not just middle schoolers. Also adults. Even though this story is very tragic and depressing, it teaches plenty of life lessons. I think that everyone should have to read this book at some point in their life simply because people don't understand how good some people have it while others, are completely ruined. Inside and out.
I find the book A Child Called "It" very interesting and eyeopening. The main character, Dave Peltzer, is a very strong willed, brave young boy who has been abused since day one. He has endured such abuse for so many years, from day one to his 5th grade year. He was finally freed on his 5th grade year and was taken away to a foster home, but before that is where our book takes place.
This book has such powerful and moving words that really open your eyes. This book has made me realize how hard other people have it and how many luxuries I have in a life that some people never get. The luxuries that everyone else gets isn't something everyone has. Dave was a very unlucky boy in his life for many many reasons that are just above unbearable.
Dave Peltzer has been physically, emotionally, and mentally abused in the worst degrees. He was abused by his mom, his peers, and his brothers. His mom abused him the worst and in every form possible. The brothers helped with that effect. This eventually caused the leaving of David. He was taken by the police to the nearest foster home. When he was taken it wasn't the prettiest time until then.
Dave has been through a lot and still made it out in the end. I give that a spot in my book at the highest rank. He has really come through a lot to go through torture almost all of his childhood. On top of that, he still came out as a perfectly fine father of one child and still living. This makes me smile knowing he has made it and has become successful.
I give this book the highest rating possible. I give this book a 5/5.
The book, “A Child Called It”, is a very moving and gruesome story of a young boy, David Peltzer, who is abused by his alcoholic mother. It is an autobiography that explains his long, horrible life as a young child. He was the only child in his family that was abused. This all started because of his mother. She was such an alcoholic that whenever she got mad she took it out on Dave. Dave’s story took place in Daly City, California in the 1970s. Dave was starved to death and burned, and all he wanted was a family that loved him like a normal family would. Why would she do this to him?
Dave’s was born into a very loving family. Everyone in the family got along very well, and there was never a quarrel to cease it; however as the years went by, David’s mom and dad slowly drifted apart. Then, the abuse started. At first, the punishments were minor, but as David’s mother got more and more into alcohol, the punishments got worse. When it started David was forced to do the chores or sit in the corner. Then, David’s mother, Roerva, started starving him by giving him strict time limits to get the chores finished; if the chores weren’t done David would miss a meal. Then Roerva started telling Dave that he was a “bad boy.” As this continued David really did think he was a bad boy. Roerva forced him to lie in freezing cold water until he was as pale as a ghost. She had broken his arm and even stabbed Dave; yet when someone asked about what had happened, it was stated as just an accident. She put harsh chemicals in buckets and locked Dave in a small, unventilated room for hours to the point that Dave was almost dead. Roerva even tried to burn him on top of a fiery, hot stove. Luckily David had the will to survive these harsh conditions, and he found a way to get out of it.
This book has completely changed my views of the world. I knew there were people that had it bad; yet I never knew that somebody could be so horribly abused, especially a child. I do not see how a mother could treat her own child like this. As a result of this heart touching story, child abuse has been brought to people’s mind. I, myself did not think of such a thing happening but I now see what a reality it actually is. I think one good lesson taught in this book is not to judge a person but their appearance. Just because someone does not dress perfectly does not mean that they need to be bullied, they may actually need help. I wish that one day that this tragic thing will end, and no one will ever have to worry about it again.
In conclusion, David’s story teaches many valuable life lessons that should not be overlooked. David was a nobody to his whole family. He believed himself to be a bad boy and an “It.” David was just a way for his mother to take her anger out, while he watched his childhood slowly fly by. I think that when people read this book they are going to realize how bad some of these things can be and that they could be happening right outside their doors.
I give the book, “A Child Called It,” the highest rating possible. Not only because it was a good book, also because it teaches people about the reality of the world they live in. I give this book five stars.
In this essay, I am going to tell you all about a book, in which my class and I have read at school. This book is called A Child Called It and it was written by David Pelzer. This story takes place in California, and it informs us about Dave's horrifying life of being abused by his own mother. The story is also telling us exactly what David is thinking through his “battle” of a life.
Now I am going to tell you a short summary of the book. To start with, David is a young child who is in the 1st grade. Throughout the book, he informs us of his brutal life. Dave's family used to be loving, caring, and helpful towards each other until alcohol entered the parents. The addicting poison had a major impact on their relationship. As a result of the drink, Dave's mother became very angered towards his father.. Therefore, his mother took her anger out on David because he spent the majority of his time with his father. Through the years, the abuse became worse. It ranged from braking bones, to locking the child in a bathroom with a bowl of ammonia! His mother even stabbed him in the stomach! David's life could not have been any worse. He rarely slept in bed, or ate a real meal. David spent the night in the garage, under the table, and occasionally in his fathers bed. When his mother broke his arm, she let him sleep in the top bunk. David awoke to her telling him to tell everyone that he fell off the bunk bed. Dave was starved throughout the book. He was always eating out of the dog bowl, or stealing other students lunch at school. When David had stolen a frozen food tray from the cafeteria, his mother made him gag himself. This caused the frozen food to reappear; hence he was punished for eating food.
I strongly recommend A Child Called It for you to read, however you should probably be atleast a teenager o read it. It is well written, and depressing at the exact same time. This will also awaken you to the truth about abuse. Honestly, this story is definitely one of the most depressing things that you will ever read, but I am certainly glad that I got to experience it. This autobiography is amazing! Until I read this book, I never knew how lucky I was.
In summary, this book is an amazing book. The theme of it is very nice. It shows that if you work hard enough, you will achieve your goals. In the story, David is trying to achieve the goal of escaping the torture of being beaten by his mother. At the end of the book. David receives his goal. There were several lessons in which I was taught by reading this book. I learned to be thankful for what I have. There are several kids in the world that have nothing.
I give this book 4 stars, because it is a really good book, but it is too depressing. A Child Called it is one of the best autobiographies that I have ever read. If you are planning on reading this, be ready to have some time on your hands, and keep some tissues close by. You may need them.
A Child Called "It" is an intriguing, yet depressing journey through the torturous childhood of the author himself, Dave Pelzer. It is an autobiography of his abusive mother, family, and classmates. The entire book takes place in the small town of Daly City, California, except for one family vacation at the Russian River.
Dave Pelzer, a four-year-old boy, who lived with both of his parents and two siblings, had a relatively normal life. Things soon started to change as his parents' marriage started to fall apart, resulting in his mother developing an overwhelmingly dangerous alcohol addiction. With her marriage hanging by a thread, Dave's mother began to see her husband in him, thus, resulting in upcoming years of unthinkable torture, as well as physical and mental abuse.
At first, this abuse was kept a secret from the world, including their family. Dave had become his mother’s slave. He had to do every household chore she could think of, even unnecessary things. He was no longer allowed to interact with anyone but his mother. Only on rare occasions, would he be able to sneak the scraps of food he cleaned off of his family’s plates into his mouth after they ate.
In the beginning, his father would try to defend his son, and rescue him from the clasp his wife almost literally had around his neck, but his wife would always give the excuse that Dave was a "bad child", and needed no help with anything. After his father tried to rescue him, it made his mother even angrier because it made their marriage worse. Dave was now forced to sleep in the garage. Eventually the scraps from his family were taken away after she caught him and started to sprinkle cleaner on the food to poison it. Now, Dave’s only was to survive was to steal from his school, which happened to be the only place outside of home that he could go. He eventually got caught, and the school called his mother which resulted in even more punishment for Dave.
As time went on, there came a day when Dave's mother hitched ride on a train to “Crazy Town”, and nearly killed him by filling a spoon with ammonia and shoving it down his throat making him ingest the toxic liquid. He quickly lost consciousness and was literally smacked back to reality by his mother. Another time, by accident, that she almost killed him was when she so drunk that she became wobbly. She picked up a knife and threatened to kill him if he did not complete his chores on time. This did not faze Dave, but she lost her balance and the knife came flying out of her hand into Dave’s chest, impaling him.
Although these cruel acts were performed only at home, three years of dirty clothes, wounds, and a starving, helpless looking boy began to cause curiosity. To Dave, this was his family "secret". Letting this out would not only make things worse for him, but it would lower the appearance of his family, and get his beloved mother in trouble. He knew in his head that the teachers at school, who constantly interrogated him about his personal life, were his only hope. But their bold attempts to help this little boy were continuously shot down by Dave’s inability to speak up with this problem that would eat away at him for years.
In the midst of all this, his mother tried to have a little fun twice. Once was when she took her kids to the Russian River for a vacation with the new baby of the family. This didn’t work out so well for Dave, because while his brothers and father went out fishing, mother began to torture him. She smacked him around a little, but when that wasn’t enough, she picked up a dirty diaper and smeared it all over his face and screamed, “Eat it!” This attempt of fun for her failed when the rest of the family came home, and she was forced to hide the evidence of her cruel act by cleaning up her son. Another surprise was for her husband, but also a little treat for the rest of the family. By making him a nice dinner and having a festive evening with the kids, I believe she was trying to make something up to him. But this attempt failed when he came staggering home hours later than he was supposed to, completely drunk. This makes me come to believe that she is ashamed of what she has done and is trying to make up for it by ending it now, or is trying to win back the trust of her husband, so she can destroy it again and hurt him even more.
After years of living through his mother’s sick games, there came a day of relief for the young boy that slept in his father’s bed. He didn’t know it, but the day he had the interview with the CPS lady Dave was finally rescued. The principle, teachers, the nurse and other caring people felt they had enough evidence of child abuse to go to the police themselves. With this and the interview, they had enough evidence to get Dave out of the abusive house and in to a foster home. Dave had never been more scared, not ever; which was shocking considering all that he had been through. A police officer came to the school, and picked him up. Constantly reassuring him that everything was going to be okay, the police man drove him to the station. When they got there, Dave was in disbelief that this pain and suffering was actually going to be done after all these years. When they got there, the police officer picked up the phone and called his mother. Dave could not hear the conversation, but deep in his heart, mind, and soul, he knew it was really over this time.
The story of Dave Pezler was a really interesting and heart-breaking journey. I really enjoyed the book and the descriptions used, no matter how horrifying and gut-wrenching they were, because it built an image of each abusive moment in my head, therefore giving me a better understanding. Throughout the novel, I was urging to read more, even though I wanted to puke at some points and at others I just wanted to reach through the book into real-life and strangle her, rescue him, or both at the same time. I was touched by his sad situations and I never lost interest. I wanted to look away, but dig deeper into his life at the same time on every page.
In conclusion, the story of Dave Pelzer’s young life was a tragic and heart-breaking one. I believe that I would have done what he did if put in the same situation, but thankfully I haven’t been and am lucky enough to have a mother who loves me. I don’t think anyone should have to go through that, and it just makes it worse that she began to torture him at such a young age, and with people being very naïve back then, it took a long time for anyone to make a hypothesis and tell somebody. That only added to the fact, giving others a chance to bully him.
If I were to give this book a rating out of five stars, I would give it a 4, because I thought the descriptions were very vivid, but not completely clear. I would recommend this for anyone who thinks they have a tough life, but not for anyone under the age of ten because of all of the profanity in it.
A Child Called "It" is a phenomenal book! In my opinion, it is an inspiration to all people who read and love this book! It encounters the life of an abused boy named, Danid. His mother, Catherine Roerva, abused him way to much, and of course way too violently. This Happened in Daly City, California. However, the year was 1971.
The book, A Child Called "It" is a very tradgic story about an abused little boy. David was the little boy's original name, but it had been changed throughout his childhood lifetime. In my opinion, I though it was like his own mother, father, and several brothers didn't even acknowledge him even being there! If I were in his position I would strive to stay alive! Also, I would sort of be a little disappointed. David had one of the worse cases of child abuse and neglect ever recorded. However, David would always look at the clock, and that's what kept him alive! In my opinion, all he had needed was time. Although, all of his harsh punishments he put up with and had to take the blame, he survived! From laying in the ice cold bath, while his brother's friends came in just to laugh at him, to making him sit and hold his hands in boiling water. In my opinion, is she found joy in abusing one of her own children, but only one of the boys, almost to death, that is awful! She physically and mentally abused him, horribly. However, Catherine Roerua ruined his childhood life with children at school embarrassing him with the way his mom had made him dress! Consequently, she didn't get caught, but at the end, and David had become, in his words, "I'm Now Free!"
In my opinion, I enjoyed this book a lot. However, Catherine, his mom abused him horribly. I thought that she had went way to far, at the beginning, when she made David stick his hands in the hot, steaming, and boiling water. Honestly, I wish I knew why she had tortured him, because he didn't deserve it! Some people say it's because David reminded his Mom, Catherine, most of his Dad, Stephen. I feel that is a horrible excuse, becuase if she didn't like her husband, then why did she marry him? Consequently, it kept on happening, over and over again, but it was increasingly getting worse! I thought it was awful when the kids at school made fun of them, because you would think that they had known what was going. However, I can't believe His mom, Catherine's, reaction when Dave's article got chosen for the school's newspaper. In fact, I was honestly and actually astonished of her, but it didn't seem surprising when she ripped it up!
In summary, David found out that all he needed was a little bit of time to survive! This is a great autobiography, but a sad one too! As a result of, in this book, there were many times taht I had almost wanted to cry, but didn't. In conclusion, if David had, had the chance to succeed, I felt that his childhood could have been something you would want to remember! I found it terrible, awful, and very sad, especially when, I thought, she had held him back a grade. He was then in class with one of his younger brothers. I believe that, that had scard him for the rest of his life! With his "Swiss Cheese Old Clothes." Also, with his "Rusted Old Lunch Pail." Since his own mother only fed and watered him every three to five day he had to steal food from the other children's lunch pails at school, they had found out; therefore, they had to move him to the school acrossed the street. In summary, which his mother also made him literally run to school!
In conclusion, I would for sure recommend this book to everyone I know and don't know. Even if they ask or if they don't ask! In my opinion, I would rate this autobiography four out of five stars!
This outrageous book, “A Child Called It”, is written by Dave Pelzer. This story is about his childhood abuse, making it an autobiography. The story takes place in Daly City, California. Since it is only in the 1970's when the story takes, child abuse is almost unheard of. “A Child Called It" is adequate documentation that child abuse is real, and an ongoing issue in our society.
This book is about David Pelzer's abuse, so let me give you some background information. David used to live a very happy life until the family practically crumbled apart. David's mother, Catherine, started to become an alcoholic. This resulted in some abuse; however, as time passed it only got worse. David’s mother would beat him, burn him, punch, and starve him. David was even stabbed by his mother. David would also be humiliated at school because of the way he looked and smelled. Consequently, David would steal kids' lunches at school because his mother would not feed him. David would sleep outside in the garage on an army cot, however that later changed. For instance, David was moved to his father’s bed to remind him of his father while he was gone. Meanwhile, the alcohol really influenced his mother to abuse him more. In the end, David’s only hero, his dad, left them. The abuse only stopped when David was taken away from his family.
In the beginning of the flashback, David talks about the good memories that the family had together. As time passed, Catherine would beat David when his father was not around. Likewise, the situation worsened and his father became used to the daily abuse. After things got out of hand, David's father left the family. David felt hopeless. He was soon taken away from his mother. That was when he finally felt free.
I thought this book had a lot of great life lessons included in it, yet it was not my favorite book. I like how the book really taught you some great morals. Something I didn't like about the book was all of the violence. The book was very descriptive, but a little too much for me. In the final analysis, the book was alright. It was very well written, but I was not crazy about it.
In any event, I give “A Child Called It" a four out of five stars rating because of how well written the book is.
The book I am reviewing is “A Child Called It”. It is an autobiography written by David Pelzer. The story is about the abuse he suffered throughout his life from his mother, and how he overcame it. It takes place in western California, in Daly City, which is close to San Francisco. It takes place in David’s house, where he was abused by his mother, but it also takes place at his multiple schools where he was bullied.
The story starts off with an average day of Dave in fifth grade. His abuse is really bad at this point, but when he goes to school and gets his regular checkup with the nurse, they call him to a conference room in which there are police men. They take him away to a juvenile center and gets scared that he is in trouble. After the officer calls his mom, he takes David to the city limits and tells him he’s free. The story then jumps back to his life as a small boy, when it was actually better than the average boy. His parents loved him, and did just a little less than spoil him and his brother. Then, all of a sudden, things turned badly. His mother apparently obtained a drinking problem and started blaming him for things and calling him a “bad boy” She held him back a year in first grade because she said he deserved it. She also started her punishments of abuse which seemed bad, but were nothing compared to what she will do in the future. As he progresses in school, the “punishments” get worse. Some examples are the gas chamber treatment, the sitting outside treatment, and the cold bathtub treatment. Now he has to sleep in the basement on an old army cot, and isn’t even considered part of the family. Somewhere along the way, his mother accidentally stabs him with a kitchen knife, treats the wound, and goes back to normal as the horrible mother she is. His father tries to help, but he can’t do much, as he doesn’t want to displease the mother. As David gets into fourth grade, then fifth grade, he isn’t even considered a human being by his mother, and has lost all hope in his father being his savior. The beatings are worse, and more frequent, and the treatments happen more often. His mother humiliates him, and his brothers help. He is bullied in school, and has no friends. He eventually gives up on faith, and god. His father separates from his mother, and when he realizes this he realizes there is no one that can help him. On their way home, he prays one last time to god, and that’s when it goes to the introduction. The epilogue is about Dave’s current life, and him talking about how he had the strength to not only overcome the abuse, but become a good person also.
I think that this story is both terrible and amazing in its own ways. It’s terrible to have to read through the graphic details of his life and abuse. Sometimes I cringed in disgust and horror at the things he went through. It’s amazing, however, because it teaches you lessons of life, and to appreciate it. It teaches you not to take life for granted and most importantly, not to judge others based on appearance because we have no idea what kind of life they might lead.
In conclusion, this book is an amazingly terrible story about a child who was abused by his mother, and kids in his schools, yet overcame that abuse and became the wonderful, educated, successful man he is now. In fact, his story is the third worst recorded case of child abuse in California. But that is just the recorded cases. For all we know, there could be even worse cases of child abuse out there, but just aren’t recorded or known of. Again, it is a horrible thing to read about, but it teaches us a lot about life, and to appreciate that we have lives in which we have at least one person we can count on. I’m afraid to say, however, that there are probably other people who have no one in there lives.
I give this book 5 stars, and highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read it.
In the book "A Child Called It" by David Peltzer, he tells the story of his terrible childhood. His story takes place in Daly City, California. David is continually abused by his mother. He wakes up every morning knowing that he will be abused. He is now a slave to his own family. They do not even call him by his own name anymore. He is now know as an "it". Every day he wishes that someone will come and save him.
Usually, David's mom with punch or hit David; however, sometimes she comes up with other cruel punishments. Whenever she hears about something new, she always has to experiment with it on David. Also David is bullied at school. He is made fun of because of the way he looks, and by the way he smells. Then if David eats anything at school his mother will make him puke it up. He also is not allowed to talk to his brothers. It is just so sad what he has to go through. Alcohol is a major factor in the relationship between David and his mom. She is always drinking and it only makes thing worse.
I think this book is one of the best I have ever read. However, some of the things were hard to read. This book teaches many lessons to people. Everyone should recommend this book to others. I think this book is very well written and flows very well. I really like how he wrote the story as a flashback. In the beginning David gave a summary of his life, then in the flashback he gives a more detailed story of his childhood.
In conclusion, I think this book by David Peltzer is an amazing story.The fact that this book is a true story makes it even more interesting. However it is very sad what David had to go through, and nobody tried to help him. I can not imagine how David felt. I would definatley recommend this book. It teache sseveral lessons throughout the book that can be applied to our lives. I now understand why this book is highly recommended for seventh and eigth graders. I think that we sould be thankful that we are not trated like David was. But, now David is a more stronger person than ever before.
The book A Child Called It is about a young kid who is constantly being abused by his mother. It is an autobiography written by David Pelzer. He had to go through some quite traumatic experiences for someone only about age ten. It really is amazing that he is now a normal, not to mention successful person. He wouldn’t give up on the hope that he may one day escape even when things looked their worst.
In the beginning of the book Dave’s mother is just like any other. She is perhaps too perfect. It was a shock when she started abusing Dave both physically and mentally as well. He had to do many chores or there were severe consequences. He was called names that show that his mother doesn’t care about him anymore. Things just keep getting worse over the years for Dave. She locks him in the bathroom with a bucket of bleach mixed with ammonia. This created a gas chamber that would make the lungs burn. He had to swallow ammonia as well. He had his head bashed against tables, his face smeared in a dirty diaper, he was starved, he was burned, his arm was broken, he was even stabbed once, and probably one of the worst things, he was tricked into believing that his mother cared for him again. This was just an act to avoid a child services agent. However, he was finally freed from his torture in the fifth grade.
I thought the book was okay. It wasn’t one of the best that I’ve ever read, but not the worst. It was a bit graphic in some places. Child abuse wasn’t even heard of until the release of this book. I’m sure that it happened, but it wasn’t a topic that came up in everyday conversation. It’s sad that things like this happen, but the sad fact is that they do.
In summary, A Child Called It is about the true story of probably one of the worst cases of child abuse ever reported. It is a very sad story, however it shows that someone can go through the most horrible things and be alright afterward. It is quite remarkable.
The book is called "A child called It" by: dave peltzer. The setting of the book is california 1971. The book is about a boy in first grade (Dave peltzer) and his mom turned into a alcaholic; but she wasn't always like that.l Dave used to have a loving faimly, but his mom turned into a alcaholic and started to beat him. Then when he went to school no one really liked him and kids called him names like "peltzer smeltzer." Just because he didn't take a shower. The first part of the book is the end because it is one of those novels. My first point is his dad could have done somthing but he didn't do anything but say we wi8ll get out of here someday. T^hen his mom had all of the punishments ready for him when he got home and he slept in the basement a majority of the time. The there was a thing called the gas chamber. That was where dave's mom would take a bucket of clorox and amonia. Then she put dave in therewith the bucket and it would make a grey fog. I would say the worst was when she put him on the stove. What she does is she makes dave take off his clothes and get on the stove. I thought he was going to die but he wrote the book so he didn't. The last one is when she filled the bath tub with cold water and shoved his head under water. Then made him hold his breath as long as he could until his lungs are bursting. I thought this was a good book and not because dave gets beaten. It's because it shows how lucky kids are to have a nice mom and care about that. I'm not saying that he has bad parents. He has parents that have no respect for them. The only thing his mom cared about is about is beating dave that is pretty much it. Dave's dad really didn't know he existed anymore he never came home. In conclusion I think dave peltzer's faimly trewated him as dirt. He is lucky he didn't die and I'm not saying that in a bad way either. He is lucky to survive all the things she did to him. In the end a police picks him and says "your free." In conclusion Daves parents was one of the meanest faimly I have ever seen.
The book that I have recently read was called "A child called it." It was a very good book, but a the same time a very sad book to read. The setting takes place somewhere in California. The book is basically about a young child named David who's mother is just an awful and mean and horrible person. She abused him all the time for no reasons whats so ever. David didn't really have a good relationship with his father and the more and more his mother hurt and abused him, the further and further david and his father disconnected and got seperated.
The books summary is about David and his whole life. David was constantly abused by his mother and his father didn't really do anything about it. But before any of this abused started, David and his mother and father and whole family used to be very close. They were all a very loving and caring family. Everyday when David and his brothers came home from school, dinner would always be ready on the table for them right whenever they walked into the front door. Guess who always made that dinner every single night? Davids mother. Every weekend Davids mother would always make some kind of fun plans for the whole family to do and participate in. The family always had fun together aand enjoyed spendng time together. Then his mom started drinking and becoming more and more depressed and david had no clue why. Then she just started treating him differently from his other two brothers, and not in a good way. At first, davids mom atleast gave him the dignity to sleep on the top bunk of the bunk bed. Then she moved him under the dining table in the kitchen with some newspapers. His last resort was sleeping in the cold basement on a hard wooden soldier cot that was in no way comfortable or cozy. Davids mother never fed him so while he was sitting on the cold basement stairs, he could hear his mom and dad and two brothers eating and having a good time upstairs enjoying their hot dinner. Oh what David would do for even a little piece of that food. He then would have to go upstairs after they were finished eating, scrap all the leftover food into the dogs bowl or into the garbage, and wash the dishes in scolding hot water that his mother would make. David would start steeling other kids snake foods like twinkies at school so he could have atleast some energy to go on for the rest of the day. The principal then found out so when he called Davids mother and she found out, David knew he was really gonna get it when he got home. Some of the punishments that Davids mother put him through were the gas chamber. The gas chamber is where Davids mother would put him in the bathroom to clean it, but she would put a bucket of Clorox and amonia mixed together to creat a deadly gas like smell. The door would be closed so he had no way to fresh air, which meant no way to breathing. Another awful thing that Davids mother did was make divid lay on top of the stove so he would burn. David was smart though so to stall, he looked at the clock to see how much time he had and he kept asking his mother questions so she would answer him instead of making him lay ontop of the hot stove. Another punishment was the called the mirror treatment. That was where his mother would smash his face against a mirror so it would shadder , and then make him look at himself in it and repeat over and over again "I hate myself." David's mother was an awful and horible person and he only had one pair of shoes and clothes. His clothes had more holes in it than swiss cheese and his shoes had holes in the souls so sometimes, David just went without them. He had an awful lifestyle that no child should ever have to go through.
Continued .. To evalute this book, I really liked it. I didn't enjoy reading it because it was so dicriptive and horrible that sometimes, I just had to put down the book and stop reading for a while to process everything that happened. I recomend that everyone should read this book, but only if you wont cry every time you read something terrible in it. I have to admit that I did cry two different times within this book but I can't remeber which parts they were.
another summary about the book that I'm going to tell you about is the ending. The ending was very sad but definetly in a good way. At the end of the book, David finally told someone a little bit about what was going on and then it was also starting to show a lot sense david had no friends whats so ever and he would always come to school with bruises, bumps, scrathes, and burns so people started to suspect that something was going on. At the end of the book, a social worker came to get David so he could finally go to live in a nice house that every child should have the chance to grow up and live in.
This book is an excellent story to read. I highly recomend that everyone read this book because it can really teach all of us a big life lesson. we think that sometimes are life is hard and that there's no hope, but just remember Davids situation that he was in.
The story’s name would be “Child Called It” it is an autobiography by Dave Peltzer, which means the narrator would be Dave Peltzer. There is Russell (littlest brother), David, Stephen Joseph (the father), Catheren Roerva (the mother/abuser), Ronald and Stan (brothers). That is the family of the Peltzer. Also David is the one who gets beat every day by his mother. His brothers never get beat, mother treats them like angels and they get away with everything unlike David. The story is about how David gets beat everyday by his mother. Now it wasn’t always like this, in kindergarten she was a wonderful lady she did all kinds of things for her sons and her husband. They went to a lot of different places, well at least when she was a good mother. She would let David eat with them, and all sorts of different things that’s was good. Now she is a drunk that hits her child every day and drives her husband away, making him to start to be a drunk. He used to come in about ten minutes or so and kiss everyone, but now he doesn’t even show up he just goes straight to the bar and doesn’t come home until around three four o’clock and has to leave at seven-thirty in the morning. When he isn’t home she will torture him, play dead wrong games with him that would have killed him if he didn’t find a way to survive. I think that the book is a nice book; it’s just that I don’t think that was appropriate what his mother had done to him. All those things that she had done to him had too many details. I think that he should’ve left way before he did, the neighbors should’ve done something to help him. I’m real sure that they heard him screaming or heard her screaming at him if you think how many times she yelled at him. They would have to hear some of it; I mean come on now she yelled at him every day and at every time of the day she could.
(continued) In summary, David Peltzer gets beat every day by his mother. Which is a drunk and now his father is too. The family of David Peltzer is a wreck. They obviously hate each other now because of the mother, she has ruined the family completely well maybe not the brothers, but I doubt with David gone, and now they are screwed. I rate this book a four, I would’ve made it a five but it kind of made my stomach hurt if you think about it. Like I said before, there were too many details excpecially with the stove treatment. With the details with the burning skin and the flesh and everything, that was just nasty.
The child called it, By.David pelzer. He was just a young little boy who just wanted to fit in with with everyone else. Until his mother started drinking, david was always abused for no reason at all. David had to finish every single chore he had or he would get abused and he wouldn’t get to eat. The only thing he would get to eat was the left overs from his brother ceral bowls. But therefore if his mother would catch him doing that she would bet him. In march 5,1973, daly city, california, David pelzer His mother would always abuse him when she got drunk. The first thing she did to him was slap him across the face just for putting his hands out of the hot water. David liked to go to school but when he went he would still twinkies and other types of foods out of kids’es lunch boxes, because his mother would never let him eat. Every day david has to go to the nurse Ms.moss so she can find any new cuts or bruses, scares. All the teachers felt sorry for him because of what his mother does to him. The nurse writes down if he has any new makes so that she can tell the principal Mr. Hansen. Mr. Hansen told david he was going to call his mother, If he would call david would get in lots of trouble. After Mr.Hansen sent david off to class, he called his mom, david arived at Mrs.woodworth’s English class. when he walked pasted all the other students they helled there nose’s and hissed as he walked passed to sit in the back of the room. As the day went on david was called into talk to his teachers and a police officer. They wanted to ask david a few questions but he wouldn’t answer them. Later on, david went home and got abused by his mother for telling the principal. They sent david away somewhere where he wouldn’t get abused again. I don’t like this book because david got abused by his own mother every day of his life. However, his mom would make him sleep in the garage, under the dinning room table. And when david went to school he would be called nasty names just because he had holes in his clothes and stinks. The other reason I don’t like this book is because his own mother was the one who beat him when she got drunk. Also david got beat everyday. When david went back to scholl a police officer put him in the back of the car and took him somewhere where he wouldn’t get abused. David was kinda surprised he was going to somewhere to be free and not get abused by his mother.If I was to rate this book I would give it a 2 because, it was a reallt terable book about this little kid I feel really sorry for him if he went to my school I would always help him out.
In the atrocious autobiography A Child Called "It" the author, David Pelzer, tells of his hideous childhood. This terrible story occurs in Daly City, California. Most of the story takes place in the home of David where his alcoholic mother cruelly abuses him which includes physical and mental abuse. More abuse takes place at school where kids make fun of him for his appearance and smell; David can't help these facts, it's not his fault.
David started life in a loving, kind family. They went on vacations and family trips, and they all loved each other. But, as they say, all good things come to an end; David's mother and father began to grow farther and farther from each other. As the relations between his mother and father began coming to an end, alcoholism began. Because David's mother associates him with his father, she takes her anger out on him. At first, the punishments were minor such as doing all the chores and saying he was a bad boy. When Roerva, David's mother, found these punishments not helpful she went to greater extremes by making him sit in a bathtub filled with cold water and not eat for several days. Things quickly began to escalate when his mother broke his arm, burned him, and stabbed him. The worst part is, she didn't feel any pain in hurting and torturing her child. Roerva then settled with a "game" called the gas chamber in which she would enclose David in the bathroom with a bucket of Ammonia and Clorox as the poisonous gasses filled the room. David's eyes burned and his throat too as he suffocated and nearly died. Luckily, David had the will to survive in spite of everything; I would not have had the will to survive.
This novel, A Child Called "It", was a life changing story; it really put my life into perspective. I realize how lucky I am to be living the way I do. Now I know the truth about child abuse, and it disturbs me. Abuse, if recognized, should never be hidden; no one should ever be treated the way David Pelzer was. I now, always, remember not to be so quick to judge people. In the end I think what really got through to me is that I should be thankful that I am so privileged.
In conclusion, I believe David Pelzer's novel should be recognized, not only for its life lessons but also for its truth. I recommend this book if not for anything, truth and awareness. I was unaware of how child abuse could play such a toll on someone until I read A Child Called "It". Abuse is a growing problem and if I become aware of any abuse I will take a stand for that person no matter what. No one should ever have to endure the unjust pain of David.
I give the autobiography A Child Called "It" by David Pelzer five stars for its life lessons and descriptive writing.
The book that I recently read was “The Child Called”. It was a very inspirational story to everyone that has read it. It took place somewhere in California. The author was Dave Pelzer which was also the main character. The story was definetly unforgettable.He was brutally beaten but still had the courage to live to tell about it. He had the strength to to take all his mother gave to him and still survive through it all.
The summary, Dave Pelzer was beaten to the max and starved. His mother was a major acholic who tourted and nearly left her own so dead. So he had to stay strong and take all of the games his mother played just to stay alive. He was going to give up just yet he wasn’t going to give up just yet, he wanted her to pay, he was gonna play her games and maybe think one day someone will find out. But he wasn’t a boy anymore he was a “IT”. Dave slept numerous places in the garage, on an army cot, under the table, and even in his fathers bed. His mother starved him and when she let him eat which was hardly ever she would give him scraps for the dog bowl or spoiled food. Most of the time he snuck it which she found out so she made him throw it up in a bowl and make him eat it all. He was not allowed to go anywhere. He was only allowed to go to school.
countied. Next, He had nobody to go to. He wsa not allowed to tell anyone what was happening at home. School was his safe place though. His mom would make up lies to tell everyone that asked. His life was a living nightmare. He also dreamt of his dad being superman and that’s what basically kept him alive. But he finally found a wonderful woman to tell everything to and it was a school nurse. Yet school told the principal even though she basically promised not to. The principal called the CPA so they all had a meeting and dave lied and said nothing was wrong but he still got introuble then ever.
The evaluation, This book was very upsetting and hard to put down. Everything was happening so fast. I thought it was very heart stopping. This is the best book on child abuse. It is deffinetly the worse case of abuse. You can just feel Dave go through all the fear, loss, pain and wanting to just get revenge on his horrible mother. When I first read this book I just wanted to bawl my eyes out. He had no hope to ever be helped. I give this book five stars and everyone from the age 13 and up should deffiently read this.
The next summary, To finish up everything this book was very brutalizing and mind changing. You never know whats going on in someones. This kid was brutally beatin and emotionally drained.He lost all hope in everything. He stopped believing in God and everything else. He never lived a normal life. He lived in a nightmare that he would never end. This story really awakened me I see how bad child abuse can really get. He always dreamed about his family loving, feeding and playing with his family. Instead he was just dreaming. He was in reality and it was not to good for him. But in the end he was finally free.
The book we just read. "A child called it" was an amazingly written book. it was well thouhgt out and written. I couldnt imagine what it would be like to live with someone who would constantly beat and abuse me. I could barely read on and on in this book due to the fact this kis is getting beat and abused. i just hate the feeling of the gas chamber when david was forced into the bathroom with a bucket of two different acids. i forget the names.
The beggining of the story was when he was with his real mother and she would beat him and cut him. she is the one who put hiim in the gas chamber in the bathroom. i felt so bad for david peltzer because this story is really true. some people cried while reading this but i didnt really think of all that much besides of him getting beat. Like i said, I hate reading these sad stories. there so sad when they can get every example to be like your there watching it. I love this story, well i only love one part. that is when david gets taken away from his mother because he finally told someone that she was beeting him. David was often starved because his mom thought he was aa bad boy, she even made him look in a mirrow and call himself a bad boy, which i hated that part. because there are not bac kids, just kids with bad decisions, but this wasnt a decision he made. he was forced to do these things or there would be concequences. I dont really agree with most people. some people just laugh and tell themselves that they are fine if its not them. which i disagree. its not right or fair for some kids for some to be beat and some to be spoiled. i would not like to have the kind of mothers he had. he had two mothers. The firse one was the worst. she made him swallow some acid that made him not be able to breath for a while. The second mother, and the father would get drunk at four o-clock every day. thats when they couldnt control their minds or when they beat him. well both didnt beat him, it was just the mother that would. the father wouldnt really pay attention. One part in the story was when the mother stabbed david and when david went t oshow the father, all he said was "Go back and do the dishes or we both will get in trouble."
And the conslusion for this story is that, everyone gets beat once in a while, but not everyday, or every week. The dad wouldn’t say anything to his beatings because when the mothe r was drunk, she would hurt the father also. I wouldn’t be scared of her if I was the father, I would just try to calm her down and like tell her to stop. Or if she doesn’t ill take the kids and some money and go gett and appartment or a trailer until I have enough money to send them to college or something to get out of the hell house.
This is a book revuie on the book called A Cild Called It. Tis is a autobicogerfy about Dave Pelsure, also he is the auther This is one of the most servere child abuse case in California. Tis took place in Daly City California. The year and date is March 5,1973. That was a cupple of years before her was getting abused. His mom and dad had a happy hour it started at 3:00 pm and it did not end untill they wanted to go to bed. that was normaly until 1 or 2 in the morning.
Catherine is his moms name. she is the one abuseing dave. She would not let him eat. his mom did not pack him a lot of food for lunch for school. That lead to him stelling food frome= other kids. One day that he took food from a kid and he told the teacher and then the school called his mom tht he was takeing food from other kids. When he got home his mom beat him more than she already did the day before.
His dad would not tell his mom to stop hurting our kid but he did not tell her anything. his mom was drunk all the time and that is some what why she does this to him. When he would go to school he would have marks from were his mom hit him. and the techers would ask him what is going on at your house. and they would talk to his mom what is your kid doing at your house. And she said that he would be playing out side. He would not beable to go out side because his mom would not let him do any thing.
A Child Called "It" is the true story told first hand by David Pelzer the most abused child in california history. I'm sure one of the only resons that it's not the worst ever recorded is because if it was any worse the child would be dead. This wasn't just an occationaly slap in the face or being a little underfed, this kid was a slave. I find that the most sick thing is that his syblings are treated like kings, and they are taught that they are superior to him in every way. I recall a time in the book where he returened comments that his brothers had said to him, and his punishment was that he was to lay on the floor of the car to be kicked and steped on by his brothers on the floor of the car. I truly thinkk this suffering was a neccicary thing, it needed to happen so that we would understand that this happens, and it needs to be stopped. I remember the mirror treatment in the story where Dave had to stare into the mirror for hours and say "I'm a bad boy. I'm a bad boy" over and over for hours. He was on I belive two occasions was forced to eat iteams that the dogs in the house wouldn't touch. He actually ate after the dogs once. He bent down and scarrfed down the remander of the dogs food after they where done with it. He slept in the basement and often stole food to eat or ate from the trash at school, he couldn't eat the trash at home because his mother sprinkled it with ammonia. His father didn't like davids tourcher, but didn't do anything to stop it. His mother was also a binge drinker so she didn't usually have concern for his lfe. Notice I said life not saftey. He ran to school while his bothers rode in the car. He was treated baddly by even som teachers, and tormented by students. Dave had the ability to tell the whole world about his life, and described it fantasticly. Although this was good, I wish he had told about his typical day, not so much focus on the esspecially bad days, and I wish that he had gone over his relationship with the rest of his faimily and his brothers more. He also should have mentioned more I feel about his life before the abuse, and I relize that the abuse started at an early change, but he would have some memory of before. Also I think he should have talked about why he thinks he was singled out. Over all I give A Cild Called "It" three stars. Even though I found several problems I found the book hard to put down. Now on the back of the book it mentions games that left him nearly dead, even though I culd see it I wish that they where more out lined. This book made me think how fourtunate I am to live in a house where this sort of thing doesn't happen. Of course my mom works for the DHR on child abuse and neglect cases, so it make senes that I don't experience this.
David Pelzer wrote “A child called it” He was also the kid in the book. He wrote it to tell about how he got abused by his mother. It went on for 5 year. David got taken away when he was 11 years old. The cop came and took him from school and put him in a different home.
David’s Mom was a drunk and then it started tearing the family apart. When David’s mother was drunk she would beat and abuse him in any way she could think of. He was his father’s favorite so when he was home the mom wouldn’t beat him. The things she done to this boy was sad and treble. I wouldn’t have thought a 6 year old boy would have had to go through this.
I would recommend this book to anybody.It's a good eighth grade book.The book "the child called it" kept me interested clear through to the end.I liked the charcters.Made me greatful for my own parents.
I give this book 4 stars its well detailed and was a really good book.
This compelling autobiography written by Dave Pelzer “The Child called It” is one of the of the worst cases of child abuse. As the protagonist Dave Pelzer tries to keep his will to survive his mother while being tormented, hurt and abused by his mother Catherine Rovara in Daly City, California in the year of 1971
In this book Dave Pelzer was beat and sometimes not even feed also his mother played games with like making him eat Crap and putting him in a homemade gas chamber she even stabbed him and lied to the father about it and the hospital. And most of the time she didn’t even call him by his name it was either the boy or “It” but was freed after a couple years of all of that
I like the book because it teaches you a lot about child abuse and how you can maybe prevent it and I would prefer this book to most people because just so theyy can see that most kids have it rough so don’t take anything for granted and enjoy the little things that you have in life
In summary this book contains graphic words and desciptions and tells how bad this poor little child had got beat ,stabbed ,and even starved by his mother I mean myy reaction to this was to just imagine that it was me in his shose for a day
My final view would to give this book a four star rating
This compelling autobiography written by Dave Pelzer “The Child called It” is one of the of the worst cases of child abuse. As the protagonist Dave Pelzer tries to keep his will to survive his mother while being tormented, hurt and abused by his mother Catherine Rovara in Daly City, California in the year of 1971
In this book Dave Pelzer was beat and sometimes not even feed also his mother played games with like making him eat Crap and putting him in a homemade gas chamber she even stabbed him and lied to the father about it and the hospital. And most of the time she didn’t even call him by his name it was either the boy or “It” but was freed after a couple years of all of that
I like the book because it teaches you a lot about child abuse and how you can maybe prevent it and I would prefer this book to most people because just so theyy can see that most kids have it rough so don’t take anything for granted and enjoy the little things that you have in life
In summary this book contains graphic words and desciptions and tells how bad this poor little child had got beat ,stabbed ,and even starved by his mother I mean myy reaction to this was to just imagine that it was me in his shose for a day
My final view would to give this book a four star rating
Summary of Main Parts This is the unforgettable account of the most severe child abuse cases. It is the story about David Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable alcoholic mother: a mother who played torturous games-games that left him nearly dead. At a young age he had to learn how to beat his mother by using time. David knew when his brothers came home or anybody else. He would use time to side track her from the beating. His mom treated him like a slave not an eight year old boy. His mother abused him by locking the bathroom door and mixing ammonia and Clorox. Then filled the bathtub with water and submerged his head for hours at a time. She also stabbed him with a knife and broke his arm by squeezing it until it snapped. Description The title of this book is called A Child Called “It.” This book is called this because his mother called him an “It”. That drove his confidence into the ground. The author of the book David Pelzer was the main character of this story. The genre of the story is an auto biography. He experienced this physically and emotionally. This story took place in Dally, California. Evaluation This book was an excellent book but very disturbing in many ways. I could never live through this. The only thing that would push me through this would be god and basketball. I have seen someone slap a child but not stab them or put them in a gas chamber. I understand the difference between discipline and abuse she should be put in a mental hospital. I don’t think anyone deserves anything close to what he had to endure. His mother treated him worse than their house pet.
Summary The summary of this is the book was amazing but if it would have been longer and told about how successful he is now would have been great. I am very surprised he was able to write such an amazing book. After someone gets abused like this they go crazy or kill themselves. But David Pelzer had the spirit of god with him. He said he prayed his mom got sick and she did. When I first started reading this it was horrendous. I was sick to my stomach. When he said he had to squeeze the infection out of his cut I got a pain in my stomach. This book was disturbing but excellent. Final Review The book was great I would give it five stars.
The title of the book is "A Child Called It". The author is Dave Pelzer. This book is an autobiography. It took place in California 1971. The mom's name is Catherine and the dad's name is stephen. David also has four other brothers, none of the other brothers get abused on david.
David was not always abused by his mother. They used to all get along and be a happy family. This soon was about to change, David's mother started abusing him when his father would leave for work. She would bang his head of a mirror or wall. One day she even tried to burn him on a stove. His mother had also stabbed him by an accident later in the book.The gas chamber amd the amonia was the worst treatment. First his mom made him drink a spoon full of amonia, it burned his troat and made his tounge raw. The gas chamber was when she would mix amonia and clorox in a bucket and the gas would fill the room and suffocate him so he couldn't breath. His mother didn't let him sleep in the house, he slept on an old army cot in the garage. The only time he was alowwed in the house was when he was doing chores or his mom let him sleep in his father's bed.
This is also a very good book. David is so vivid and the book is clearly written. It's like you can see everything he is saying, but some of the stuff is extreme. I would recomend this book to anyone. This is one of the best books I have read.
This book teaches many life lessons, you also learn about child abuse.There are many things to learn about child abuse, like how it affercts someone's life and there family. This book keeps you in suspence because your always wondering what's going to happen next. Once you start reading you won't want to stop
This is a great book. It teaches you many things you didn't know before about child abouse. It's very imformative and clearly written. The images he gives you are so vivid and his way of written is so descriptive. I wouold recommend this book to anyone and I give this book 4 stars.
The title of this boof is called "A Child Called It." The auther of this book is David Peltzer. This is a tru story about his life. This book is an autobiography. This book takes place in California in 1971. Davids mom and dad, were catherine and Stephen. And he has four other brothers. David was abused only by his mother ande nobody else cared.He once had a close relationship with his dad but over time that realtionship feel apart. His mom would punish him even when he did nothing wrong. She wouldn't feed him and she would put him in the bathroom and almost made him die. This book was a really good and desturbing book. David is really vived when he tells what happend to him. You can really see the picture in your head.I would recomend this book to kids who are getting abused and just for anyone to read. This book teaches life lessons.You can learn alot from this book. Also you can learn alot about child abuse the most.How it affects the child and the mother or father. This book keeps you all excited and you cant wait to see or read whats going to happen next. Once you start reading this book you dont wanna stop. This book is one of the best books iv'e ever read. It tought me alot about what not to do when im a mother. I can recomend to anyone.
The book “A Child Called It” is an inspirational story about child abuse. “A Child Called It” is written by Dave Pelzer. This was set on March 5, 1973, Daly City,California. This is the unforgetable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was badly beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortous, unpredictable games-games that left him nearly dead.
In the first chapter “The Rescue” David, main character, was doing the dishes and had finish on time to get breakfast. Since, he did not get any diner last night, he had to have something to eat. His mother caught David with his hands out of the water. His mother slapped him in the face, and he toppled to the floor. At the end of the first chapter, the police officer, Officer Smith, took David a few miles towards the outskirts of Daly City. They are on highway 280. David looks out his window and sees a sign that says “ The most beatiful highway in the world.” The police office says to David, “ David Pelzer, You’re free.” In chapter 2 “ Good Times”, Dave explains the good times he had with his family, before he was abused by his mother. David’s family was the “Brady Brunch” of the 1960s. Him and his brothers were blassed with the perfect parents. They lived in a modest two-bedroom house, in a “good” neighborhood in Daly City. David’s father, Stephen Joseph, supported the family as fireman working in the heart of San Francisco. His mother was truly a gifted cook. Of all the things she did for her family, creating newing and exotic meals was her favorite. Back then their house was full of pets – cats, dogs, aquariums filled with exotic fish and a turtle. Later on in the book, David gets thrown into the basement and his mother puts gas in there, and David was traped in a gas chamber. David’s mother did a lot of other stuff to him. For example, she cut his stomach, and did slot of damage to him.
The book “A Child Called It” is a very sad book, because Cathrine, David’s mother, beat up her son and did nothing to his brothers. There are a lot of things I just can’t understand. For example, I do not understand why she would hurt her own child, it is very sad. This is not one of my favorite books.
In conclusion, I recommend this book for kids ages 12 or above. I will warn you, be ready to cry. It is a very very sad book.
Four Perfect Pebbles takes place in the 1930s to 1950s. Marion Blumenthal is the author of Four Perfect Pebbles. The book is about the Blumenthal’s will power to escape and survive the holocaust.
The summary of the main points would be hope and survival. Her Family was shuffled around all kinds off concentration camps with all these diseases and sick people. They starved and watched people pass away, be burned, and a lot of other things. But they still had hope. They starved, was dehydrated, sick, cold, and sad but they still survived.
The Blumenthal’s were shuffled around camps and was starved and open to all kinds of diseases. The Blumenthal family faced a lot of stuff they had to overcome but maybe the worse would be riding on a train where you know you’re going to die when you arrive at the location. Or maybe the train was the best part because the Russians freed the train.
In conclusion the Blumenthal’s faced a lot of bad things but in the end the survived and never gave up. In all it was probably hard and they did want to give up some points in time but they didn’t.
254 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 254 of 254A Child Called It
By: Dave Pelzer
The autobiography, A Child Called It, is a great book about a young boy’s life as he is abused and treated with disrespect. This is a true story and is written by Dave Pelzer himself. The story takes place in Daly, California. Most of the abuse in this book takes place in the home but, he experiences bullying at school because of his clothes and poor hygiene. He cannot help this because he rarely showers at home.
In this book, poor Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten by his sick, cruel, alcoholic mother. His mother played sick and tortuous games that were unfair because 7 year old Dave could not defend himself. Some of the things she did included lock him in a room with a bottle of Clorox and ammonia. This caused a gas chamber effect because there was nowhere for the gas to escape. Other times she would fill the bathtub up with ice cold water and completely submerge himself so he could not breathe. She held him down for a minute at the least and did it repeatedly. Next are the burns. One day when Dave came home from school his mother, Catharine, was waiting for him to walk into the kitchen. She would force his arm over the open fire on the gas stove. In this chapter Dave describes that he could smell the burning flesh from his arm that was being burned and blistered. One random night, Catharine made Dave sleep on the top bunk bed. The next morning Dave’s mom was furious with him for being a “bad boy.” She was drunk more than she had ever been before. She was beating Dave so hard that after a few hits his arm snapped right in half. This way she could say he fell off the top bunk and broke his arm.
At the beginning of the abuse his mother would not beat Dave as bad when he was with his dad. In this case, his father was kind of like a protector or a guardian. But as time went on and Dave got bigger things got worse and worse. By the time Dave was he was in the third grade his mom no longer cared about the dad. She would beat Dave like she would any other time. If the dad attempted to stand up to the mother it would only make things worse. She was almost if she was fueled by her anger at the father to beat young Dave.
I think this is a great book; there are many life lessons you can take and learn from in the story. Although there were many I believe that alcohol was the biggest part. In the story alcohol makes the mother do things that maybe she wouldn’t have done if she wasn’t drinking so much. Alcohol can play mind tricks with you; it will control your body practically if you drink too much for your body to handle. Each day at 1 o’ clock the parents would have a happy hour which was really a happy night because they would drink all night till they went to bed.
In conclusion to this horrifying story of a young boys life, and how he was abuse since the first grade. This story will make you realize what is happening in this world. As you can see this is only one of the many physical abuse cases in the United States and all over the world. Only you have the power to control is, one child at a time.
I give this autobiography by Dave Pelzer a five start rating due to his descriptive writing and how he describes his life.
The title of the book I am reviewing is called "A Child Called It". The book was written by an author named David Pelzer. The book takes place in a neighborhood in Daly City, California, in 1973. The book is an autobiography and was proclaimed "The worst recorded case of child abuse in history". I have never read anything like it, though that is partially because I don't tend to read books like this. The author of the book was also the object of abuse in the book. The forms of avuse described in the story sicken me in more ways than one, and only make my already disapproving opinion of society even worse.
The first chapter describes how David was taken from his home and "freed". The second chapter describes how wonderful his life had once been, after that, things get ugly. The biggest abuser in the story is David's mother, and is reffered to throughout the story by only two names: Mother, and The B(if you think I am typing the whole word in think again). David is known throughout the story mainly as The Boy, but at the end finally becomes just "It". David's mother abused David in many ways, most of them sick, twisted torture survival challenges that DAvid's mother reffered to as "games". These "games" are sick and twisted in the way that I represent them with an image of a frightening demented circus clown with an ugly face and a sense of reality not lost, but rather hideously distorted far beyond repair. In simpler terms, it is almost as if throughout the story David's mother slowly goes from being a despicable human, to a literal monster who was once human but who's mind is so twisted and distorted that its owner is literally no longer human. There wer other means of torture as well. One of David's mother's favorites were starvation, beatings, and several one-time-only torture treatments intended to cause David to feel excrutaitingly in pain. These treatments were also desighned to damage David emotionally, scar him, lower his self esteem, and do other mental damage. David's mother also stabbed David, broke his arm, and, to make sure he only ate what she gave him, forced him to vomit all his food after school every day so she could examine it and ensure he hadn't stolen something. Before David's mother began torturing him that way, she used something called the corner treatment. The corner treatment seemed like an ordinary time out I'm sure, but I also garuntee that it was worse, I just can't think of how.
This book is not for people who scare easily. If you are a small child or someone who is frightened extremely easily, I don't advise reading it. It is a good book overall however. Though it does get graphic, I recommend it for readers who can handle that kind of gore. I am already trying to get the sequel.
This book is an excellent, sometimes frightening(or in my case sickening on multiple levels) story, and reading it might give you a little change in perspective: maybe your life isn't that bad after all. Though David was put through things that would cause most people to give up and quit, David held out. I probably would have behaved similarly if I were in that situation. If I didn't behave similarly, I would have fought back immediatly when the beatings began, and probably won too. One warning though. When you read this don't be surprised when you start feeling sick to your stomach, or stat crying or something.
I give "A Child Called It" 4.9 stars
The book I read was titled A Child Called “It”. The author of this book is David Peltzer, also the main character in the book. Similarly, it is written in the autobiography genre. The book is totally true, and the setting took place in Daly City, CA; where David used to live. The story is very famous, and many people know about it, hence it’s a “New York Times”, “USA Today”, and international bestseller.
A Child Called “It” has many important and shocking events. David Peltzer is an extremely descriptive writer in the ways he tells about his abuse. To begin, Dave started with the present telling how he finally got free from his mother, and then starts the story of his history as a flashback. Accordingly, he had two brothers, a stay at home mom, and a hard working dad. His dad, Stephen, was his hero. Dave had a very nice family. Later, as time went on, David’s mother started acting odd. This was the result of is mom, Catherine, becoming an alcoholic. Soon, Catherine was beating David; saying he favored his father over her. She stopped caring and released her anger on the seven-year-old Dave. Catherine keeps this from Stephen for a while, but when he finds out, he’s too afraid to act. After this, the abuse escalates. Catherine starves him, burns him, beats him, feeds him toxic chemicals, gasses him, makes him sleep on the floor like a dog, eat dog scraps, and other things that are absolutely disgusting. Through David’s life, he’d try to steal food for himself, but got a bad reputation from it. Also, few teachers tried to help him, but help didn’t really come until fifth grade.
To evaluate this book, I didn’t “enjoy” reading David’s horrendous story, but it really does teach you to be aware of what’s happening to some abused kids around the world. I have never heard anything this vulgar and terrible being done to a child that young. Briefly, it’s really extraordinary how Dave always kept himself hopeful; looking at the bright side constantly.
In any case, A Child Called “It” is just a completely raw book. David Peltzer didn’t sugar-coat anything that happened to him. It must’ve been really hard for Dave to write this book because his alcoholic mother basically lost her mind. Also, his hero of a dad sat by and watched his son suffer for years. Hearing the things that happened to a little boy in elementary and middle school in such vivid detail is a violent wake-up call.
In conclusion, I do recommend this book to read. If I had to rate it, I’d give it five stars. On the contrary, I didn’t like reading this book because David’s story is just sad; his family fell apart. However, the way he kept his faith is inspirational. My only recommendation is to not read this if you don’t have a strong stomach.
Abby Wadsworth 1/2
The most heart- breaking and devastating story I have ever read has to be The Child Called It. This autobiography was very well written by Dave Pelzer. He uses an amazing use of details that gives you a vivid picture of what’s going on. His words can make you feel grief, pain, and any other sense of emotion. The Child Called It, takes place in Daly City California in 1971. The only way I can describe this book is by saying that it’s a rollercoaster ride. It’ll make you angry, miserable, and confused all simultaneously. This manuscript, I believe, will change your life.
David’s mom, Catherine, was an amazing mother. She loved all her children and her husband, all the while treating them right. But, one day she traded that in for being an alcoholic and abuser. Catherine started having issues with her husband, Stephen, and took it out on his favorite child, David. She went absolutely crazy. For example, she made David sit on a burning stove, smeared a baby’s diaper in his face, made him eat his own vomit, while simultaneously beating him constantly. Catherine’s names that were given to David went from Dave, to “The Boy”, to “It”. David was never allowed to eat or change his clothes, and by the way, no one even noticed! He got teased and bullied at school, abused at home, and hated by himself. Sadly, Stephen no longer tried to help David by talking to his wife, but just sat back and watched. At this time, David no longer had respect for his father and hated him more out of everyone in the family. This abuse lasted from 1st grade to the 5th, when he was finally set free.
The Child Called It does an amazing thing, and that’s make you realize that you are blessed. It definitely composes you to think about the people who may have it worse and to be grateful. In my opinion, that’s the greatest message that any story can give. On the other hand, though, Dave Pelzer uses a pretty full amount of cursing in this book. I understand that he wants us to feel what he feels, and that he was getting this off his chest, but I could’ve done without the many explicit words. As a result, that was the only down side in this book.
As you may tell, this story is pretty intense and powerful. It’ll make you angry and frustrated, while simultaneously sending an amazing message. The Child Called It will hopefully make you realize the things that you have and be grateful for them. But, be aware of the curse words, they may be overwhelming for you, yet all in all, a powerful story.
This book is life- changing. The powerful situation that Dave has to go through over comes the curse words. As a result, I give it five stars and recommend it to middle school and older audiences. The foul language and details may be overwhelming to anyone younger. Yet, great book!
The outstanding book A Child Called It was written by David Peltzer. This autobiography was very vivid and graphic. The antagonist of this book is the evil Catherine Rosevera. She was the mother of the protagonist, and six year old boy, David Peltzer. The whole story took place in Daly City, California in 1971. This number one international best seller is a heart throb, and must be read by everyone. You need to learn of how lucky you really are.
In this story, the main points are very horrific, but some were not so bad. For example, as if this poor child hadn’t had enough physical abuse, he was to clean up after the family members ate. Even though he never was allowed to eat, he would still do it. His father would help with the dishes, which was a good point to the story. There weren’t very many other good points in the book, which is very upsetting. Now, let me tell you about the abusive points. One example is when his mother would starve him. Not any human being can survive without food, and she did this to him for ten days straight. The worst off all was that the little six year old boy received love from no one. I can’t even imagine what that is like.
This book was a very life lesson learning book. It’s is an extremely good book for the children above the age of twelve. Sometimes the language is very foul, but a lot of the times it is very easy to look past. Also, some of his punishments were very descriptive, and kind of made me gag. I recommend this book to whoever wants to read it.
You have to read this book for the lessons it brings out of it. The kids at school bully him so much, but they don’t know what goes on at home. I t teaches you to stop the bullying. Another lesson is that if you are being abused, go out and get help. David should have notified someone, and maybe the beatings would have stopped. I f you are being abused, contact someone immediately.
All and all, this non-fiction book is great. Not only the stories, but the lessons it teaches. It gives visual details, more than any other book I’ve read. I give this book four stars.
A Child Called It is written by David Pelzer. This book is an autobiography. David wrote this book to inform readers of his dreadful childhood past. Pelzer was treated horribly starting at the young age of seven.
In the story there are seven chapters. The chapters range from twelve to forty pages each. The first chapter actually occurs lastly. Therefore the book is a flashback. The rather fantastic book took place in Daily City, CA in the year of 1971. David starts out as a normal child in a rather happy family. Almost a too good too be true family. The parents have three children and by the ends of the book five. Rarely any problems occurred at the residence. One day mother, Catherine Roerva, Got a little jealous of dad, Steven Pelzer. Mother was very close with all of the kids except David. David appeared to be closer to dad than her. She greatly despised this action because David liked Dad more. She decided to punish him for this. Each punishment gradually got worse by the day. Mother got so angry she stabbed him, broke his arm, burned him, and many other horrific events. The worst one is the gas chamber. As dreadful as it sounds, it is terribly worse. Mother read about this in the newspaper, first she mixed ammonia and Clorox bleach into a bucket. A chemical reaction occurs, and a grayish colored gas swirls into the air killing brain cells and smelling terrible are not the worst of the emulsion, sitting in a small closed in bathroom breathing the gas made David’s throat ache and bleed while being raw. This is VILE!
I would say this book is a good one if you have a box of tissues near and no sympathy pains, you have to read this book to understand his great agony. On a scale of one to five stars i give it a five! This book is not a choice of mine, but I am truly glad I read it to understand a more clear view of the importance of life. The incredible amount of bullying is unimaginable. If you or a friend I strongly advise you get help. YOU ARE IMPORTANT!
The book overall is very heart felt and very descriptive, therefore you feel as if you are David. The book tells of many horrific actions and sessions of pain.
Overall you should buy the book! I highly recomend you order it now or stop at a store to buy it.
The book my class recently read was "A Child Called It" by David Pelzer. It's an autobiography about a young boy named David that was abused during his childhood!
In the book "A Child Called It" there many terrible things that happened to David! David was abused for almost 5 years and suffered many things that I couldn't even imaging going through! David was set aside from the family and was told that he wasn't part of the family anymore. David was abused in crazy, non forgettable ways! His mother burnt him on a stove, made a gas chamber, broke his arm, stabbed him, and many other things! The amazing thought about that though is that he fought to survive and managed to beat his mother in her own game. David went through names that started with "The Boy" and end the ended up being called "It". After all this and even before things got to be worse he felt like everyone had giving up on him and no one cared or loved him at all! He had to find away to get his own food, that happened every three days possibly! If not he starved for up to ten days at one point without any food! After all of this abusement he went through he was set free in the end and never saw his mother again!
I would say this is a good book for kids my age to read because of the suspense and the murals of the book! It can teach you a lot, and make you want to help other, and treat people the way they should be treated!
In conclusion of this suspenseful book, I'd say it is a really good book to read and especially for it being an autobiograghy! You can learn a lesson from this book if you pay attention to whats going on and what it is saying! I'd recommend this book for others to read, because it is a really good book.
I really like this book, and I'd say positive things about it. So the rating would be good.
The title of this story is a child called it and its one child’s courage to survive. The author who wrote this story is Dave Pelzer and in this story they have a lot of cuss words in this book. The genre for this story would be true because the mom abuses one of her sons and the son was trying to fight for his will to survive. The setting in this book took place in Daly City California and the mom is named Mrs. Pelzer and the dad is named Mr. Pelzer.
This story takes place in Daly City California and the mom abuses one of her sons and she beats him and she lets him starve to death everyday without any food. The boy sleeps on a army cot down in the basement where its cold and the boys clothes are dirty and the boys family is poor.
I think this story is good and it should have 5 stars because this book is the #1 international bestseller book. And the boy that gets abused in this story is trying to fight his way to survive. Dave Pelzer is the dad of the three sons the two sons don’t get abused but the one son does.
The summary would be about David how he gets abused so much from his mom. The mom doesn’t let him eat food and he goes to school and steals food from other people’s lunchbox and the food he steals is Twinkies. Then the mom said to David go take a bath and the mom held David underwater until he couldn’t breathe. Then the mom wiped baby poop in David’s face and then he had to eat his vomit he threw up.
I think this story ‘s rating is 5 stars because it’s good and sad but it’s the #1 international bestseller book. I love this book but I feel bad for the son that gets abused. The mother does crazy stuff to her son she burns him and he ears vomit and starves to death and takes a bath in the mom holds him underwater until he cant breathe. David goes outside and freezes to death and he rides his skates up and down the hill and then the mom and dad get divorced.
2nd and 3rd period
The gruesome novel, A Child Called “It,” is an autobiography about one child’s abuse from his mother. By the way, his mother was an alcoholic. The alcohol, for the most part, took into account for the abuse. This true story is written by David Pelzer. It explains how he was beaten and basically tortured by his mother, Catherine Pelzer. This novel helped create laws to protect abused children. The story takes place in Daly City, California.
At first, David’s “mother,” was your average American mother. Then, her drinking got worse. By now, the abuse had begun. She was a wicked witch to him. No matter what good he did, she would never be proud or acknowledge him in any way. She gave him “punishments” all of the time, for no reason. David would be the best he could be, but she still beat him. As the drinking progressed, as well did the levels of punishments. For example, she would knock him around for a good amount of time. She would also shove his face in his little brother’s poop-filled diaper. One of the worst things his mother would do to him was the starvation. She was so cold and heartless that she would starve him. Once, she starved him for ten straight days! I am just unable to comprehend how she could treat her child this crude. Another harsh treatment was when she would concoct a mixture of Clorox and ammonia. She put the mixture into a bucket and set it into the bathroom. After that, she would force David into the room, and make him sit in there for a while. His eyes would burn and his face would sting. David would hardly be able to breathe. There are just so many different punishments to name. Isn’t that so sad and depressing? The abuse carried on for a few years. In time, his principal caught on and finally gave him the help he needed. He was then free.
On the contrary, there were so many life lessons learned. First of all, over the years, he has unleashed courage that he never knew he had in him. I am telling you this guy is tough. He also had gained intelligence. He would sometimes out smart his “mother.” That helped him get through some of his beatings. I think he also gained hope at some point in time, but overtime, he lost it all.
David’s “mother” was extremely abusive toward him in his childhood years. David had four brothers, but she never abused them. No one will ever know exactly why she abused just him. Not only did she hurt him physically, but mentally and emotionally. By the way, his parents were married, but his dad did squat. His father just let it happen. The beatings and “punishments” progressed as his mother’s drinking progressed. He was utterly tortured for multiple years.
I give this novel a rating of 8 because it was really graphic, but at the same time it made me tear up, and it wasn’t really bad
"A child called It" is a true story about a boy named David Pelzer who was abused by his mother most of his childhood. He wrote the book himself and describes what his childhood was like. His descriptions are extremely vivid of the horrible thi ngs his mother did to him as a child.
For example when he was little his mom read about a woman putting her child on the stove so she did it to David. One of the worst thing I think she dd to him was make him eat his baby brothers poop and the stress of having to sleep on the garage floor with nothing to cover up with but some newspaper.
The book was very good even though it tells a bad story. For some reason this was my favorite book read in class. I could imagine every part I wanted to because of David's vivid descriptions. I think the book was really good.I don't like what hi mom did to him.
In the begining David's mom was really nice and perfect to him. They went on vacation even. Then one day his mom changed and became an alcoholic and very abusive to him. She only abused David not any other of his siblings like him. He did a lot of chores took a beating from his mom as his dad watched and didn't say a word.When David got to eat he didn't eat much. For breakfast he sometimes got to eat his brothers leftover cereal.
For lunch he ate two peanut butter sandwiches and some carrot sticks. He stole food from other kids until he got caught then he tried going to people's houses and then stealing from hot lunch at school and a grocery store. When he was in fifth grade finally his wish came true they took him away from his mother.
Like I said the book was very good. I didn't like the things his mother did to him. His descriptions were very good and it was my favorite book we readin school.
A Child Called “It” is an autobiography of David Pelzer’s life. This horrible incident occurred in Daly City California and the abuse ended in 1973. The actual abuse occurred in his mother’s house, mostly in the basement, bathroom, and kitchen. This is known as one of the worst cases of child abuse ever recorded in the United States. From gas chambers to being beaten to being starved and stabbed, this is what David’s life was like for many years. And that is not even close to the number of ways David’s mother abused and tortured him.
This book is a flashback on David’s life. The beginning of the book tells about the day David has at school. Then it starts the flashback as he is riding in the police car being taken away from school. The flashback starts with how David’s mother was before she became abusive. Then, she started drinking, and it all got way out of control. After that, starts the abuse. There was the mirror treatment, beatings, non-stop chores, moving to the basement, gas chambers, almost-drowning, being stabbed, starved, and more. David was forced to lie on top of the hot stove. The only way he avoided it was by provoking it until his father returned home from work. One day, a lady stopped by the house from social services. She was there to inspect David’s living conditions. David said one thing wrong and he was beaten and screamed at for it. When his grandmother was expected to come in a few days, David’s mom started treating him like he was actually part of the family again. After his grandma left everything went back to normal. One day, after wanting to for so many years, David’s father left the house. After that, everything went downhill fast. The only thing David had going for him were his bruises that made the teachers suspect that he may need to be removed from his mother’s home.
This book was the saddest book I have ever read. It was a very good book though. Before I read this book I did not know a whole lot about child abuse. I knew it happened but I didn’t know some cases could be this bad. This book is hard to get through once you start reading about all the different ways his mother abused him. Some parts of it are absolutely disgusting. It’s even worse that his own name was taken away from him. All he was to his mother was an It. A worthless thing she called an “It”. The entire book made me question why someone would even think of doing this to someone else let alone a defenseless child. I would recommend this book to another person though.
A Child Called “It” is an autobiography of David Pelzer’s life. It is one of the worst recorded cases of child abuse in the United States. This book is a flashback on David’s life. It starts with David being taken away from his mother. Then, tells what a great mom he had before alcohol took over her life and she became an abuser. Next, it tells about all of David’s abuse. This is a good book but is very hard to read. This book is a great autobiography by David Pelzer, about his journey to survive one of the worst cases of child abuse ever; I would give it four out of five stars.
One Book that everyone over the age of eleven needs to read at some point in their life is A Child Called “It” by David “Dave” Pelzer. A Child Called “It” takes place in Daly City, California near San Francisco, California.
A Child Called “It” is an amazing book in its own strange way. It’s one of the well-written books I’ve ever read. For example, A Child Called “It” is about David Pelzer and the miserable events called his childhood. David Pelzer was a child about the age of four or five when his mother, Christina Roerva started abusing him. As David became older, Christina became more creative with her punishments that she referred to as “games.” She would have David clean her entire house and beat him up or treat him to a variety of deadly punishments. Some of the harsh punishments include the ice cold water game, the “you have two minutes to eat” game, the ammonia-Clorox game, or other various, new games. The ice cold water game was a an unusual form of abuse in which Christina would fill the bathtub full of cold water, leave David in the tub until he was shriveled like a raisin in the sun, and before he had time to dry, she would force him outside, opposite of the sun, in the shade. The “you have two minutes to eat” game consisted of Christina starving David for several consecutive days and eventually Christina would sit out leftover food and tell David “you have two minutes to eat.” Then, she would make fun of the way he ate like an animal. When mother had enough time, David would receive the worst punishment of all, the ammonia-Clorox game. Christina would fill a large bucket with a mixture of ammonia, Clorox, and water and she would tell David to go clean the bathroom. After closing the door for the harmful fumes to swirl around the room and damage David’s internals, she’d open the door and order David to dispose of the concoction. Also his mother didn’t give David very high living standards. David didn’t have a nice bed or nice clothes. He slept on either an old army cot or in his father’s bed. David’s clothes were tattered and ripped; he describes his clothes a Swiss cheese because they have so many holes.
Although the summary sounds dismal, dreadful, and dubious, I would recommend the book, A Child Called “It” to anyone as long as they can handle lots of pain and depression. Also, I would not recommend this book under the age of eleven or twelve.
In conclusion to my descriptive review of the book, A Child Called "It," I would give this book a five out of five stars.
David Peltzer's tear-jerking autobiography, "A Child Called It" , takes place in Daly City, California. This heartbreaking story is about one boys courage to survive his mothers' games. The book also takes place in the year 1971. I'm sure that writing this compelling book had to have been very emotion filled. Talking about your life is one thing, but talking about such a dark past... I couldn't do it. My heart goes out to this amazing author and his bravery.
David Peltzer had a normal family life. He had a beautiful and loving mother, an amazing father and two older brothers. He thought his life was perfect...and he thought wrong. Soon enough, alcohol was a problem in the house, and so was David. He was abused in ways you wouldn't believe. But his mother thought of the abuse as "games". David was just like a piece on a game board. Catherine, David's mother, was always drunk and she only beat David. One day, while David is home alone with his mother, she makes him strip his clothes and go to the kitchen. She talks to David for a moment and while she is talking, she turns on the burners on the stove. She then grabs David's arm and holds it over the open flame. Catherine tells David to lay on all four burners, so she can watch him burn. When he refuses she repeatedly beats him until his older brother comes home. She then tosses him in the basement like a piece of trash. He realizes, if he can beat her at her own game once, he can do it again, and has a chance at surviving. David's mother starves him for 10 days straight, taunting him with glimpses and scents of food. Catherine makes David drink ammonia. Also, she breaks him arm, and stabs him in the stomach. Finally David is set free and is taken to foster care.
This book is very good. It's breathtaking with all of the descriptions. Sometimes it's stomach turning. I give this book 5 incredible stars for such a dramatic story. I recommend reading "A Child Called It", to any 7th or 8th grade classes. Also, if not in class, I recommend reading it personally.
Summarizing this story is no problem. But getting into such detail as is done in the book, may be tricky. I'm just going to say, if I were David, I would try to escape the first chance I got. I would die if I were starved, beaten, drowned, humiliated, etc. I wouldn't know how to handle it. He was tortured so much, yet remained so strong. David may have lost faith, but he once again regained it when he was set free.
In conclusion, this is a very amazing book, and I would love to read the sequel. I give the book a 5 star, 100% rating. The moral or theme of this story, is, Stay strong, keep faith, and keep your head up, cause everything will be ok.
This book The Child Called “It” is an autobiography written by the author David Peltzer. It took place in Daly, California. This book is one of the first books written about child abuse in America. It is considered to be the worst recorded child abuse in America. Consequently, this book had caused laws to be made that we follow today.
In this book, the mother of David was not always an abusive person. In the beginning she was a nice, caring human being who would cook, clean and buy her family new clothing. David was able to play outside with his brothers and was able to watch television. The abuse started out of nowhere. David had come in from outside and smiled at his mother then reached out for a hug and that was when she had swung her fist at him. After that, the abuse would just keep getting worse. She would make David sit in front of the mirror and say that he is a bad boy. Then she had started smashing his face into the glass of the mirror while he still would be saying that he was a bad boy, causing intense pain. He would sleep in the garage on an army cot. His first grade year, his mother had held him back a year because she said that he was a bad boy. Later on, she would go without feeding him for a long period of time. This caused him to steal food from his classmates’ lunchboxes. He would eventually get caught by his mother and would get beat even more. For example, she had broken his arm and she had him sleep on the top of the bunk bed so that she could tell people that he fell off of the top. His mother then started putting time limits on his chores, and if the chores were not completed within the time limit, he would not get any dinner; therefore, he never ate dinner. His mother had gotten bored of the old beatings and started to think of more interesting ways to torture him. For instance, one time he was yelled at by his mother because she wanted him to lie on a burning stove. He refused, and she was trying to force him. He pulled away but his arm had burned. His arm was bubbling and red, while he could smell the aroma of burning flesh. Another was when he was doing the dishes and she had a knife in her hand. David got stabbed and his mother had patched up the slit poorly. When she was done she told him to go finish the dishes. At school, David had gone from stealing food to running from house to house asking for food. Coincidently, one of the people that he asked had known his mother, and he then received more punishments. She then thought of the gas chamber treatment which involved her mixing ammonia and Clorox together inside a bucket and sticking him in a closed room with the bucket. After a while she would open the door and smack him on the back then leave the room. This went along with the bathtub treatment where she told him to lay in a freezing cold bathtub while holding his head under the water for a very long time. The next time that he went to school, his principal called the police and they took David away and he never saw his mother again.
I think that this book is very detailed. I like this book, I give it five stars. The book itself is good, not the things that happened in it though. I am mad at the mother for what she had done to David.
This book is about a young boy who discovers abuse at a young age. He was very strong by not letting his mothers beatings get the best of him. The mother was a psycho and the father would not do anything to help his son.
I recommend this book to everyone, but don’t be mad at me if you don’t like it.
The book that I read is "A Child Called It" by David Peltzer, which is also the main character in the story. The genre of this story is an autobiography that takes place back in the seventies. The story is about a young boy, David Peltzer who lived in Daly City, California. It's about his struggle to survive the terrible abuse from his mother. This story will puzzle you, because of the way his mother plays her tricks left and right through the story.
At first, in the beginning of the story, it started off as if it were the end of the story. It explains how he finally escaped this nightmare that went on since he was four years old. He experienced on his own, his mother's horrible games that she played with him that rewarded him with life sustaining things. For example, she burned him on the gas stove, punched him as hard as she could, gave gas treatments, and ice cold baths. You may wonder about his father, who doesn't man up and help his son through all of this. So for the most part, his mother controls everyone in the household. Meanwhile, he had other siblings, but from his mother's point of view, they were the angels and never caused her problems. Her constant drinking were the cause of her constant abuse. To him, it was a good day when she was sober and controlled, but when she was drunk she thought up horrible ways to hurt him. In any event, his tactic was to never give in to her games. If he did, she would feel a sense of victory.
It wasn't always like this before the abuse, their family was great and his mother was like a blessing. They went on trips all throughout California. David was allowed to speak,and play with his brothers. On Christmas day, they took turns every year right after they decorated the tree, one of them were picked to have the honor of planting the star on the tree.
In summary, he is loved at first and treated just like all his other siblings. Then his mother started to drink constantly and slowly turns on David out of the rest of the siblings. She starts to think of games to play with him and abuse him badly. She started to punch him and even broke his arm. She would make him the slave and do chores for food and permission for certain actions.
In the final analysis I would recommend this book, because it teaches life lessons. For instance, it is a reminder of how lucky we are to have loving families that love and care about you. For our age, in the eighth grade it's a perfect book to read ,but may be a little too much for younger kids. This could be considered one of the worst abuse cases in the state of California and would probably scar a person's life forever. Instead, David took all that he's been through and turned it in to power and confidence that helped him lead a successful life.
Tre Lewis
6th-7th period
11/27/12
A Child Called It is written by David Pelzer. This book is an autobiography. David wrote this book to inform readers of his dreadful childhood past. Pelzer was treated horribly starting at the young age of seven.
In the story there are seven chapters. The chapters range from twelve to forty pages each. The first chapter actually occurs lastly. Therefore the book is a flashback. The rather fantastic book took place in Daily City, CA in the year of 1971. David starts out as a normal child in a rather happy family. Almost a too good too be true family. The parents have three children and by the ends of the book five. Rarely any problems occurred at the residence. One day mother, Catherine Roerva, Got a little jealous of dad, Steven Pelzer. Mother was very close with all of the kids except David. David appeared to be closer to dad than her. She greatly despised this action because David liked Dad more. She decided to punish him for this. Each punishment gradually got worse by the day. Mother got so angry she stabbed him, broke his arm, burned him, and many other horrific events. The worst one is the gas chamber. As dreadful as it sounds, it is terribly worse. Mother read about this in the newspaper, first she mixed ammonia and Clorox bleach into a bucket. A chemical reaction occurs, and a grayish colored gas swirls into the air killing brain cells and smelling terrible are not the worst of the emulsion, sitting in a small closed in bathroom breathing the gas made David’s throat ache and bleed while being raw. This is VILE!
I would say this book is a good one if you have a box of tissues near and no sympathy pains, you have to read this book to understand his great agony. On a scale of one to five stars I give it a five! This book is not a choice of mine, but I am truly glad I read it to understand a more clear view of the importance of life. The incredible amount of bullying is unimaginable.
If you or a friend I strongly advise you get help. YOU ARE IMPORTANT!
The book overall is very heart felt and very descriptive, therefore you feel as if you are David.
The book tells of many horrific actions and sessions of pain.
Overall you should buy the book! I highly recomend you order it now or stop at a store to buy it.
The outstanding book A Child Called It was written by David Peltzer. This autobiography was very vivid and graphic. The antagonist of this book is the evil Catherine Rosevera. She was the mother of the protagonist, and six year old boy, David Peltzer. The whole story took place in Daly City, California in 1971. This number one international best seller is a heart throb, and must be read by everyone. You need to learn of how lucky you really are.
In this story, the main points are very horrific, but some were not so bad. For example, as if this poor child hadn’t had enough physical abuse, he was to clean up after the family members ate. Even though he never was allowed to eat, he would still do it. His father would help with the dishes, which was a good point to the story. There weren’t very many other good points in the book, which is very upsetting. Now, let me tell you about the abusive points. One example is when his mother would starve him. Not any human being can survive without food, and she did this to him for ten days straight. The worst off all was that the little six year old boy received love from no one. I can’t even imagine what that is like.
This book was a very life lesson learning book. It’s is an extremely good book for the children above the age of twelve. Sometimes the language is very foul, but a lot of the times it is very easy to look past. Also, some of his punishments were very descriptive, and kind of made me gag. I recommend this book to whoever wants to read it.
You have to read this book for the lessons it brings out of it. The kids at school bully him so much, but they don’t know what goes on at home. I t teaches you to stop the bullying. Another lesson is that if you are being abused, go out and get help. David should have notified someone, and maybe the beatings would have stopped. I f you are being abused, contact someone immediately.
All and all, this non-fiction book is great. Not only the stories, but the lessons it teaches. It gives visual details, more than any other book I’ve read. I give this book four stars.
I read "The Child called it" in class a week or two ago. It is by dave peltzer and is placed in Daly city,california.His mom was really abusive because she was an alcoholic.Nobody would listen to him becasue they all new his mom and she told them that it was just his imagination.
Even though his dad did not abuse him he didn't do anything about it. Whenever david would try ro get him to help he acted like he was afraid of the mother.
Finally after five years someone took action and called the police and they came and picked david up.He probaly had alot of damage to his body and his brain because of the chemicals he had to drink.
A Child Called It is a book by Dave Pelzer. It is a child abuse story that takes place in California 1973. This is one of the most graphic books I have ever read and I would expect that in combat books, but a biography? This is wrong. Moreover I have had some bad instances with my parents, but this is too extreme. If alcohol wasn’t involved, this wouldn’t be the worst recorded child abuse document.
First of all the book begins by Dave being in school and being in the principal’s office. He is being set free from his mother and never seeing her again. Then the rest of the story is a flashback of how he was abused. These include: eating diapers, gas chambers, and burnings of the arm and back. I have been bad by breaking things before, but to get punished like this is not okay. He does everything that Mother asks him to do, but he still gets abused anyway. He has three brothers, two of which that have been brainwashed by Mother to abuse Dave as well. His father does not like what Mother is doing to him, but he can do nothing about it.
Next is how I think of the book. It is a very graphic novel and I would not recommend this book to someone that doesn’t like graphic books, but I would to someone that would be interested in reading this is. Most people didn’t know what child abuse was until this book came along. There should be something learned from all of this. It is that child abuse is one of the most dangerous and saddest things in a child’s life. No one should have to be like that.
In conclusion A Child Called It is the worst case of child abuse in the US and probably the world. It should not be a fate of any child. However it is very graphic and is not for the faint of heart. All in all it was very interesting to read.
I give this book 7 out of 10 stars.
This book is called A Child Called It. The author of this book is David Pelzer. He is also the boy who was abused in this book. This novel is informational and contains graphic details. It can be very disturbing in some chapters. For example: his mother, Catherine, tortures him because of his behavior. It all takes place in a normal everyday house in Daly City, California in 1973. Nothing about the location or the house’s appearance seems abnormal.
This book is one of the most heart wrenching books I’ve ever read. I would not have had the strength and will power to survive like David. Putting myself in David’s shoes is almost unimaginable. The torture he suffered was thought about long and hard by his mother. One of the treatments was “The Gas Chamber”. It contained David’s mother mixing a couple of dangerous cleaning chemicals that released harmful fumes in a bucket, and then, placing David in the bathroom with the bucket. At the same time, he was struggling to breathe because of the chemicals. If he would’ve tried to pour the solution down the drain he would’ve been beaten. Another one of the worst treatments was “The Ammonia Drink”. For this treatment, he was forced to swallow a whole spoonful of ammonia, which consequently, caused him to briefly lose his ability to breathe. Other than treatments using chemicals, she also gave him treatments where he was given severe bruises. She gave him “The Mirror Treatment”, which was when David’s mom smashed his face against a mirror multiple times causing him to bleed miserably. She was so angry towards him at one point that she pulled his arm out-of-socket and made up an excuse that he fell off his bunk bed. However, he doesn’t sleep in a bunk bed. He only slept there so she wouldn’t get in trouble. He either slept in the garage on the floor, or underneath the kitchen table. One time he slept in his dad’s bed. David even has to do chores before school. After completing these, he would go to school with chores waiting for him when he returned home. He shouldn’t have had to suffer the abuse. Although, he stole food from the store a couple of times, he was subsequently beaten and suffered more treatments. His mother thought she could get back at her husband by abusing David because whenever his father came home, David would stick with him like glue.
This isn’t my favorite novel, but I did get hooked on it. Every time I ended a chapter, it felt like the book was telling me “keep reading”. Therefore, I would recommend this novel to anyone who is looking for a book to read and is at least thirteen years old. Like I said before, this is a book that contains graphic details. It will be a difficult book to read if this is your first book about abuse. This was my first book about abuse and at first, it was hard to read, but I eventually got used to it.
In conclusion, A Child Called “It” is a depressing novel about a young boy who gets abused. It’s very sad when David gets abused because you can barely imagine it. No one deserves to be abused no matter what they do. I found it to be an interesting novel, but I hope I never have to read another like it. The punishments are very descriptive so you can picture exactly what the treatments were like. In the final analysis, it made me feel like I was a fly on the wall watching him get abused.
I give this book a rating of four out of five stars.
David Childers 4th-5th
There are many different autobiographies that vary in content and meaning. “A Child called It,” by David Pelzer gives a very rough perspective of life from the point of view of young child who is a victim of child abuse. His story took place in Daly City, California in 1971. David’s treacherous mother was a cruel woman who abused David daily, and she made life for David a struggle to survive. Basically, it is a story about a child’s will to survive.
David was born into a wonderful loving family filled with joy and love. They went on family trips and had lots and lots of fun together. Unfortunately, David’s life did not remain so joyous and fun forever. The relationship between David’s mom, the abuser, and her husband started to drift farther and farther apart. As their relationship severed, she became very aggravated and tried to find a way to relieve her stress. Consequently, she used David as a human punching bag to vent her stress due to the great bond and resemblance David shared with his father. At first, she made David do all the chores, and had somewhat minor punishments for everything he did, good or bad. He was placed in freezing cold water and left to freeze until his skin turned a dark blue that matched the ocean. She broke his arm at one point, and she even stabbed him. He wasn’t even considered a part of the family. Hence, he was separated from the family; he ate alone, left alone in the basement, and was referred to by, “It”. But worst of all, he was even suffocated by being put in a closed room as harmful gases from cleaning solutions filled the air making it almost impossible to breathe. Life for David was very harsh, cruel, and just plain mean. Luckily, David had the will to survive and that’s what kept him alive through all of her torment. In the end, he was taken out of his home and later became a successful young man despite his painful childhood.
“A Child called it,” was literally a life changing experience for me. I had always believed that everyone lived a flawless life with child abuse being only a phrase made up by rumors. But, I now know the truth. Life can be very challenging and hard, and child abuse is a part of reality that needs to be removed. Before David’s story was published, child abuse was not a very big priority or problem in the world. Many children have been saved from child abuse and David’s story is a major reason they are now in safe hands. I now know that we need to watch out for these cases, and I’ve learned not to always judge people by their appearances. David did not dress clean because of his abuse and many children bullied him for this reason. In general, I’ve learned to be thankful because not everyone can has such a privileged life where you are treated fairly and are not abused. I wish that one day child abuse will end.
In my final analysis, I believe that, “A Child called It,” has taught me many valuable lessons from the terrible life experiences that David faced. He was abused by his mother and wasn’t even considered a part of the family. He was nothing but a stress ball David’s mother used to relieve her personal problems. I now know not to judge people by their appearances but by the way they are on the inside. David was not clean, but if his classmates would just learn to understand him for whom he really was, he wouldn’t have been so sad or depressed. I’ve also have been informed of how great an issue child abuse can be. In conclusion, I’ve learned to not judge others, and I need to be more aware of situations around me so I can help in every way possible.
I give, “ A Child called It,” a five star rating because of it valuable life lessons that are necessary for the development of any person of any age and for its amazing content about life.
Reina Edawards 6-7
The book A Child called it is an inspirational auto biography about the life of David Peltzer. The setting of this story is in Daly City, California. This story is a tragedy about how a young boy’s life goes from nearly perfect to one of the worst recorded cases of child abuse in history. This is all due to the foolish actions of David’s mother Catherine Peltzer. Also, for the mother’s idiotic behavior’s caused David’s brothers to turn against him.
In this tragic story, David is abused by his mother every day. It wasn’t always like this for David. For example, Catherine used to make plans for the day all the time. She would also take the family out on vacations. The abuse all started when Catherine and Stephen, Dave’s father, began to fight and drink all the time. David and his dad always had a really close bond together; until, David’s mom started to get angry at David for no apparent reason .So David’s mother decided to start punishing him. It started with her making him stand in the corner for long periods. With time, the punishments began to aggressively get worse and worse. The two abuses that stood out to me the most were the gas chamber and the stove .The gas chamber was made by using a bucket filled of Clorox and ammonia, David was then locked in the bathroom with the door locked, with no breathable air. The stove was just David’s mom simply making him sit on the stove while turned on. David was soon going through all of this without food. Catherine would make him vomit up all his food when he got home from school, just to see if he ate there or not. As a result of Catherine’s idiotic behaviors, David’s dad Stephen soon began to stop coming home. David began to also stop loving his dad as well as his mom and brothers. His brothers even began to hate him and not even acknowledge his presence. They all acted as if he were nothing more than a ground to walk on. Soon, David had no one he could believe, trust, or love. David had even started to believe that God didn’t even love him. David had been abused from the first grade until fifth grade. One day, when Dave got to school, he was sent to the nurse and was checked over and asked questions. After the nurse told the principle all the details of David’s abuse were told to a police officer that soon came to get remove David out of the custody of Catherine. Catherine was informed Dave was not coming home any more. So Finally, for once in David’s life he was officially free from all abuse.
This book was really depressing, but then again it was written excellently. I wouldn’t advise anyone to read this book to anyone because it was so violent and brutal. This book made me realize how child abuse is such a serious case in our world today, which makes me want to take it more seriously.
In conclusion, as you can see the book A Child called it is an inspirational auto biography about the life of David Peltzer. It is a very depressing story, but it makes me want to make a change about a really serious matter. I will give rate this book five stars but only for how it is incredibly written.
"A Child Called It" is a very heart touching book.The events in the book take place in a town outside of San Francisco, called Daly City. In the year of 1971. It's about a little boy named David and his fight for survival against his mother's evil games and tortures punishments. Davids mother was Catherine Roerva & beating him, is what she lived for...
David was a young child beaten by his mother so severely, sometimes, he didn't think he was gonna survive the night. From the "Gas Chamber" as his mother called it, to almost being burnt on top of a stove, David had brutal beatings and punsihments day in and day out. For what though exactly? David was a innocent, desperate young boy he craved a wonderful childhood and a loving family that he would never forget. David had 3 brothers and then himself. Even though he never got to play with them and then they ended up turning on him just like his mother, David still cared about them. They were his brothers. Davids dad on the other hand, was his hero. David absolutely cherished his father. For some reason, Davids mother didn't beat him nearly as bad as she did when his father wasn't home...But then, the worst thing happened to David. His father left..Davids memory with his mother when he was a young child was great. She was loving, and caring, and the best mother any child could ask for. What happened to that? Researchers and other people who tried to figure out what was wrong with Davids mother could find no answers accept that she was a raging alcoholic, and she suffered from multiple personality disorder. Davids mother though, didn't beat and torture any of the other kids like she did David. Why? Simply because they believe that David reminded her so much of her ex-husband and thats why she beat David. She took every ounce of anger she had on him, out on David.
Honestly, this book is a very tragic and dissapointing childhood of a little boy who deserved nothing but to be loved...Why him he wondered? He was such a good kid & he didn't deserve any of it.
My final review of the book is that it was a very heartfelt book and I do recommend it to people of all ages. Not just middle schoolers. Also adults. Even though this story is very tragic and depressing, it teaches plenty of life lessons. I think that everyone should have to read this book at some point in their life simply because people don't understand how good some people have it while others, are completely ruined. Inside and out.
Haley Evans 6th & 7th period
A Child Called "It"
I find the book A Child Called "It" very interesting and eyeopening. The main character, Dave Peltzer, is a very strong willed, brave young boy who has been abused since day one. He has endured such abuse for so many years, from day one to his 5th grade year. He was finally freed on his 5th grade year and was taken away to a foster home, but before that is where our book takes place.
This book has such powerful and moving words that really open your eyes. This book has made me realize how hard other people have it and how many luxuries I have in a life that some people never get. The luxuries that everyone else gets isn't something everyone has. Dave was a very unlucky boy in his life for many many reasons that are just above unbearable.
Dave Peltzer has been physically, emotionally, and mentally abused in the worst degrees. He was abused by his mom, his peers, and his brothers. His mom abused him the worst and in every form possible. The brothers helped with that effect. This eventually caused the leaving of David. He was taken by the police to the nearest foster home. When he was taken it wasn't the prettiest time until then.
Dave has been through a lot and still made it out in the end. I give that a spot in my book at the highest rank. He has really come through a lot to go through torture almost all of his childhood. On top of that, he still came out as a perfectly fine father of one child and still living. This makes me smile knowing he has made it and has become successful.
I give this book the highest rating possible. I give this book a 5/5.
Alex Newman 6th/7th
The book, “A Child Called It”, is a very moving and gruesome story of a young boy, David Peltzer, who is abused by his alcoholic mother. It is an autobiography that explains his long, horrible life as a young child. He was the only child in his family that was abused. This all started because of his mother. She was such an alcoholic that whenever she got mad she took it out on Dave. Dave’s story took place in Daly City, California in the 1970s. Dave was starved to death and burned, and all he wanted was a family that loved him like a normal family would. Why would she do this to him?
Dave’s was born into a very loving family. Everyone in the family got along very well, and there was never a quarrel to cease it; however as the years went by, David’s mom and dad slowly drifted apart. Then, the abuse started. At first, the punishments were minor, but as David’s mother got more and more into alcohol, the punishments got worse. When it started David was forced to do the chores or sit in the corner. Then, David’s mother, Roerva, started starving him by giving him strict time limits to get the chores finished; if the chores weren’t done David would miss a meal. Then Roerva started telling Dave that he was a “bad boy.” As this continued David really did think he was a bad boy. Roerva forced him to lie in freezing cold water until he was as pale as a ghost. She had broken his arm and even stabbed Dave; yet when someone asked about what had happened, it was stated as just an accident. She put harsh chemicals in buckets and locked Dave in a small, unventilated room for hours to the point that Dave was almost dead. Roerva even tried to burn him on top of a fiery, hot stove. Luckily David had the will to survive these harsh conditions, and he found a way to get out of it.
This book has completely changed my views of the world. I knew there were people that had it bad; yet I never knew that somebody could be so horribly abused, especially a child. I do not see how a mother could treat her own child like this. As a result of this heart touching story, child abuse has been brought to people’s mind. I, myself did not think of such a thing happening but I now see what a reality it actually is. I think one good lesson taught in this book is not to judge a person but their appearance. Just because someone does not dress perfectly does not mean that they need to be bullied, they may actually need help. I wish that one day that this tragic thing will end, and no one will ever have to worry about it again.
In conclusion, David’s story teaches many valuable life lessons that should not be overlooked. David was a nobody to his whole family. He believed himself to be a bad boy and an “It.” David was just a way for his mother to take her anger out, while he watched his childhood slowly fly by. I think that when people read this book they are going to realize how bad some of these things can be and that they could be happening right outside their doors.
I give the book, “A Child Called It,” the highest rating possible. Not only because it was a good book, also because it teaches people about the reality of the world they live in. I give this book five stars.
Mackenzee Walker 6th/7th
In this essay, I am going to tell you all about a book, in which my class and I have read at school. This book is called A Child Called It and it was written by David Pelzer. This story takes place in
California, and it informs us about Dave's horrifying life of being abused by his own mother. The story is also telling us exactly what David is thinking through his “battle” of a life.
Now I am going to tell you a short summary of the book. To start with, David is a young child who is in the 1st grade. Throughout the book, he informs us of his brutal life. Dave's family used to be loving, caring, and helpful towards each other until alcohol entered the parents. The addicting poison had a major impact on their relationship. As a result of the drink, Dave's mother became very angered towards his father.. Therefore, his mother took her anger out on David because he spent the majority of his time with his father. Through the years, the abuse became worse. It ranged from braking bones, to locking the child in a bathroom with a bowl of ammonia! His mother even stabbed him in the stomach! David's life could not have been any worse. He rarely slept in bed, or ate a real meal. David spent the night in the garage, under the table, and occasionally in his fathers bed. When his mother broke his arm, she let him sleep in the top bunk. David awoke to her telling him to tell everyone that he fell off the bunk bed. Dave was starved throughout the book. He was always eating out of the dog bowl, or stealing other students lunch at school. When David had stolen a frozen food tray from the cafeteria, his mother made him gag himself. This caused the frozen food to reappear; hence he was punished for eating food.
I strongly recommend A Child Called It for you to read, however you should probably be atleast a teenager o read it. It is well written, and depressing at the exact same time. This will also awaken you to the truth about abuse. Honestly, this story is definitely one of the most depressing things that you will ever read, but I am certainly glad that I got to experience it. This autobiography is amazing! Until I read this book, I never knew how lucky I was.
In summary, this book is an amazing book. The theme of it is very nice. It shows that if you work hard enough, you will achieve your goals. In the story, David is trying to achieve the goal of escaping the torture of being beaten by his mother. At the end of the book. David receives his goal. There were several lessons in which I was taught by reading this book. I learned to be thankful for what I have. There are several kids in the world that have nothing.
I give this book 4 stars, because it is a really good book, but it is too depressing. A Child Called it is one of the best autobiographies that I have ever read. If you are planning on reading this, be ready to have some time on your hands, and keep some tissues close by. You may need them.
Tech Step
Levi Haines
Mrs. Constable 6/7th Period
A Child Called "It" is an intriguing, yet depressing journey through the torturous childhood of the author himself, Dave Pelzer. It is an autobiography of his abusive mother, family, and classmates. The entire book takes place in the small town of Daly City, California, except for one family vacation at the Russian River.
Dave Pelzer, a four-year-old boy, who lived with both of his parents and two siblings, had a relatively normal life. Things soon started to change as his parents' marriage started to fall apart, resulting in his mother developing an overwhelmingly dangerous alcohol addiction. With her marriage hanging by a thread, Dave's mother began to see her husband in him, thus, resulting in upcoming years of unthinkable torture, as well as physical and mental abuse.
At first, this abuse was kept a secret from the world, including their family. Dave had become his mother’s slave. He had to do every household chore she could think of, even unnecessary things. He was no longer allowed to interact with anyone but his mother. Only on rare occasions, would he be able to sneak the scraps of food he cleaned off of his family’s plates into his mouth after they ate.
In the beginning, his father would try to defend his son, and rescue him from the clasp his wife almost literally had around his neck, but his wife would always give the excuse that Dave was a "bad child", and needed no help with anything. After his father tried to rescue him, it made his mother even angrier because it made their marriage worse. Dave was now forced to sleep in the garage. Eventually the scraps from his family were taken away after she caught him and started to sprinkle cleaner on the food to poison it. Now, Dave’s only was to survive was to steal from his school, which happened to be the only place outside of home that he could go. He eventually got caught, and the school called his mother which resulted in even more punishment for Dave.
As time went on, there came a day when Dave's mother hitched ride on a train to “Crazy Town”, and nearly killed him by filling a spoon with ammonia and shoving it down his throat making him ingest the toxic liquid. He quickly lost consciousness and was literally smacked back to reality by his mother. Another time, by accident, that she almost killed him was when she so drunk that she became wobbly. She picked up a knife and threatened to kill him if he did not complete his chores on time. This did not faze Dave, but she lost her balance and the knife came flying out of her hand into Dave’s chest, impaling him.
Although these cruel acts were performed only at home, three years of dirty clothes, wounds, and a starving, helpless looking boy began to cause curiosity. To Dave, this was his family "secret". Letting this out would not only make things worse for him, but it would lower the appearance of his family, and get his beloved mother in trouble. He knew in his head that the teachers at school, who constantly interrogated him about his personal life, were his only hope. But their bold attempts to help this little boy were continuously shot down by Dave’s inability to speak up with this problem that would eat away at him for years.
In the midst of all this, his mother tried to have a little fun twice. Once was when she took her kids to the Russian River for a vacation with the new baby of the family. This didn’t work out so well for Dave, because while his brothers and father went out fishing, mother began to torture him. She smacked him around a little, but when that wasn’t enough, she picked up a dirty diaper and smeared it all over his face and screamed, “Eat it!” This attempt of fun for her failed when the rest of the family came home, and she was forced to hide the evidence of her cruel act by cleaning up her son. Another surprise was for her husband, but also a little treat for the rest of the family. By making him a nice dinner and having a festive evening with the kids, I believe she was trying to make something up to him. But this attempt failed when he came staggering home hours later than he was supposed to, completely drunk. This makes me come to believe that she is ashamed of what she has done and is trying to make up for it by ending it now, or is trying to win back the trust of her husband, so she can destroy it again and hurt him even more.
After years of living through his mother’s sick games, there came a day of relief for the young boy that slept in his father’s bed. He didn’t know it, but the day he had the interview with the CPS lady Dave was finally rescued. The principle, teachers, the nurse and other caring people felt they had enough evidence of child abuse to go to the police themselves. With this and the interview, they had enough evidence to get Dave out of the abusive house and in to a foster home. Dave had never been more scared, not ever; which was shocking considering all that he had been through. A police officer came to the school, and picked him up. Constantly reassuring him that everything was going to be okay, the police man drove him to the station. When they got there, Dave was in disbelief that this pain and suffering was actually going to be done after all these years. When they got there, the police officer picked up the phone and called his mother. Dave could not hear the conversation, but deep in his heart, mind, and soul, he knew it was really over this time.
The story of Dave Pezler was a really interesting and heart-breaking journey. I really enjoyed the book and the descriptions used, no matter how horrifying and gut-wrenching they were, because it built an image of each abusive moment in my head, therefore giving me a better understanding. Throughout the novel, I was urging to read more, even though I wanted to puke at some points and at others I just wanted to reach through the book into real-life and strangle her, rescue him, or both at the same time. I was touched by his sad situations and I never lost interest. I wanted to look away, but dig deeper into his life at the same time on every page.
In conclusion, the story of Dave Pelzer’s young life was a tragic and heart-breaking one. I believe that I would have done what he did if put in the same situation, but thankfully I haven’t been and am lucky enough to have a mother who loves me. I don’t think anyone should have to go through that, and it just makes it worse that she began to torture him at such a young age, and with people being very naïve back then, it took a long time for anyone to make a hypothesis and tell somebody. That only added to the fact, giving others a chance to bully him.
If I were to give this book a rating out of five stars, I would give it a 4, because I thought the descriptions were very vivid, but not completely clear. I would recommend this for anyone who thinks they have a tough life, but not for anyone under the age of ten because of all of the profanity in it.
A Child Called "It" is a phenomenal book! In my opinion, it is an inspiration to all people who read and love this book! It encounters the life of an abused boy named, Danid. His mother, Catherine Roerva, abused him way to much, and of course way too violently. This Happened in Daly City, California. However, the year was 1971.
The book, A Child Called "It" is a very tradgic story about an abused little boy. David was the little boy's original name, but it had been changed throughout his childhood lifetime. In my opinion, I though it was like his own mother, father, and several brothers didn't even acknowledge him even being there! If I were in his position I would strive to stay alive! Also, I would sort of be a little disappointed. David had one of the worse cases of child abuse and neglect ever recorded. However, David would always look at the clock, and that's what kept him alive! In my opinion, all he had needed was time. Although, all of his harsh punishments he put up with and had to take the blame, he survived! From laying in the ice cold bath, while his brother's friends came in just to laugh at him, to making him sit and hold his hands in boiling water. In my opinion, is she found joy in abusing one of her own children, but only one of the boys, almost to death, that is awful! She physically and mentally abused him, horribly. However, Catherine Roerua ruined his childhood life with children at school embarrassing him with the way his mom had made him dress! Consequently, she didn't get caught, but at the end, and David had become, in his words, "I'm Now Free!"
In my opinion, I enjoyed this book a lot. However, Catherine, his mom abused him horribly. I thought that she had went way to far, at the beginning, when she made David stick his hands in the hot, steaming, and boiling water. Honestly, I wish I knew why she had tortured him, because he didn't deserve it! Some people say it's because David reminded his Mom, Catherine, most of his Dad, Stephen. I feel that is a horrible excuse, becuase if she didn't like her husband, then why did she marry him? Consequently, it kept on happening, over and over again, but it was increasingly getting worse! I thought it was awful when the kids at school made fun of them, because you would think that they had known what was going. However, I can't believe His mom, Catherine's, reaction when Dave's article got chosen for the school's newspaper. In fact, I was honestly and actually astonished of her, but it didn't seem surprising when she ripped it up!
In summary, David found out that all he needed was a little bit of time to survive! This is a great autobiography, but a sad one too! As a result of, in this book, there were many times taht I had almost wanted to cry, but didn't. In conclusion, if David had, had the chance to succeed, I felt that his childhood could have been something you would want to remember! I found it terrible, awful, and very sad, especially when, I thought, she had held him back a grade. He was then in class with one of his younger brothers. I believe that, that had scard him for the rest of his life! With his "Swiss Cheese Old Clothes." Also, with his "Rusted Old Lunch Pail." Since his own mother only fed and watered him every three to five day he had to steal food from the other children's lunch pails at school, they had found out; therefore, they had to move him to the school acrossed the street. In summary, which his mother also made him literally run to school!
In conclusion, I would for sure recommend this book to everyone I know and don't know. Even if they ask or if they don't ask! In my opinion, I would rate this autobiography four out of five stars!
~Charli Crandall 6th and 7th Period!!
This outrageous book, “A Child Called It”, is written by Dave Pelzer. This story is about his childhood abuse, making it an autobiography. The story takes place in Daly City, California. Since it is only in the 1970's when the story takes, child abuse is almost unheard of. “A Child Called It" is adequate documentation that child abuse is real, and an ongoing issue in our society.
This book is about David Pelzer's abuse, so let me give you some background information. David used to live a very happy life until the family practically crumbled apart. David's mother, Catherine, started to become an alcoholic. This resulted in some abuse; however, as time passed it only got worse. David’s mother would beat him, burn him, punch, and starve him. David was even stabbed by his mother. David would also be humiliated at school because of the way he looked and smelled. Consequently, David would steal kids' lunches at school because his mother would not feed him. David would sleep outside in the garage on an army cot, however that later changed. For instance, David was moved to his father’s bed to remind him of his father while he was gone. Meanwhile, the alcohol really influenced his mother to abuse him more. In the end, David’s only hero, his dad, left them. The abuse only stopped when David was taken away from his family.
In the beginning of the flashback, David talks about the good memories that the family had together. As time passed, Catherine would beat David when his father was not around. Likewise, the situation worsened and his father became used to the daily abuse. After things got out of hand, David's father left the family. David felt hopeless. He was soon taken away from his mother. That was when he finally felt free.
I thought this book had a lot of great life lessons included in it, yet it was not my favorite book. I like how the book really taught you some great morals. Something I didn't like about the book was all of the violence. The book was very descriptive, but a little too much for me. In the final analysis, the book was alright. It was very well written, but I was not crazy about it.
In any event, I give “A Child Called It" a four out of five stars rating because of how well written the book is.
Allie Shreves 6/7 period
The book I am reviewing is “A Child Called It”. It is an autobiography written by David Pelzer. The story is about the abuse he suffered throughout his life from his mother, and how he overcame it. It takes place in western California, in Daly City, which is close to San Francisco. It takes place in David’s house, where he was abused by his mother, but it also takes place at his multiple schools where he was bullied.
The story starts off with an average day of Dave in fifth grade. His abuse is really bad at this point, but when he goes to school and gets his regular checkup with the nurse, they call him to a conference room in which there are police men. They take him away to a juvenile center and gets scared that he is in trouble. After the officer calls his mom, he takes David to the city limits and tells him he’s free. The story then jumps back to his life as a small boy, when it was actually better than the average boy. His parents loved him, and did just a little less than spoil him and his brother. Then, all of a sudden, things turned badly. His mother apparently obtained a drinking problem and started blaming him for things and calling him a “bad boy” She held him back a year in first grade because she said he deserved it. She also started her punishments of abuse which seemed bad, but were nothing compared to what she will do in the future. As he progresses in school, the “punishments” get worse. Some examples are the gas chamber treatment, the sitting outside treatment, and the cold bathtub treatment. Now he has to sleep in the basement on an old army cot, and isn’t even considered part of the family. Somewhere along the way, his mother accidentally stabs him with a kitchen knife, treats the wound, and goes back to normal as the horrible mother she is. His father tries to help, but he can’t do much, as he doesn’t want to displease the mother. As David gets into fourth grade, then fifth grade, he isn’t even considered a human being by his mother, and has lost all hope in his father being his savior. The beatings are worse, and more frequent, and the treatments happen more often. His mother humiliates him, and his brothers help. He is bullied in school, and has no friends. He eventually gives up on faith, and god. His father separates from his mother, and when he realizes this he realizes there is no one that can help him. On their way home, he prays one last time to god, and that’s when it goes to the introduction. The epilogue is about Dave’s current life, and him talking about how he had the strength to not only overcome the abuse, but become a good person also.
I think that this story is both terrible and amazing in its own ways. It’s terrible to have to read through the graphic details of his life and abuse. Sometimes I cringed in disgust and horror at the things he went through. It’s amazing, however, because it teaches you lessons of life, and to appreciate it. It teaches you not to take life for granted and most importantly, not to judge others based on appearance because we have no idea what kind of life they might lead.
In conclusion, this book is an amazingly terrible story about a child who was abused by his mother, and kids in his schools, yet overcame that abuse and became the wonderful, educated, successful man he is now. In fact, his story is the third worst recorded case of child abuse in California. But that is just the recorded cases. For all we know, there could be even worse cases of child abuse out there, but just aren’t recorded or known of. Again, it is a horrible thing to read about, but it teaches us a lot about life, and to appreciate that we have lives in which we have at least one person we can count on. I’m afraid to say, however, that there are probably other people who have no one in there lives.
I give this book 5 stars, and highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read it.
In the book "A Child Called It" by David Peltzer, he tells the story of his terrible childhood. His story takes place in Daly City, California. David is continually abused by his mother. He wakes up every morning knowing that he will be abused. He is now a slave to his own family. They do not even call him by his own name anymore. He is now know as an "it". Every day he wishes that someone will come and save him.
Usually, David's mom with punch or hit David; however, sometimes she comes up with other cruel punishments. Whenever she hears about something new, she always has to experiment with it on David. Also David is bullied at school. He is made fun of because of the way he looks, and by the way he smells. Then if David eats anything at school his mother will make him puke it up. He also is not allowed to talk to his brothers. It is just so sad what he has to go through. Alcohol is a major factor in the relationship between David and his mom. She is always drinking and it only makes thing worse.
I think this book is one of the best I have ever read. However, some of the things were hard to read. This book teaches many lessons to people. Everyone should recommend this book to others. I think this book is very well written and flows very well. I really like how he wrote the story as a flashback. In the beginning David gave a summary of his life, then in the flashback he gives a more detailed story of his childhood.
In conclusion, I think this book by David Peltzer is an amazing story.The fact that this book is a true story makes it even more interesting. However it is very sad what David had to go through, and nobody tried to help him. I can not imagine how David felt. I would definatley recommend this book. It teache sseveral lessons throughout the book that can be applied to our lives. I now understand why this book is highly recommended for seventh and eigth graders. I think that we sould be thankful that we are not trated like David was. But, now David is a more stronger person than ever before.
I would give this book a five star rating.
Ryan Vilain 6/7
The book A Child Called It is about a young kid who is constantly being abused by his mother. It is an autobiography written by David Pelzer. He had to go through some quite traumatic experiences for someone only about age ten. It really is amazing that he is now a normal, not to mention successful person. He wouldn’t give up on the hope that he may one day escape even when things looked their worst.
In the beginning of the book Dave’s mother is just like any other. She is perhaps too perfect. It was a shock when she started abusing Dave both physically and mentally as well. He had to do many chores or there were severe consequences. He was called names that show that his mother doesn’t care about him anymore. Things just keep getting worse over the years for Dave. She locks him in the bathroom with a bucket of bleach mixed with ammonia. This created a gas chamber that would make the lungs burn. He had to swallow ammonia as well. He had his head bashed against tables, his face smeared in a dirty diaper, he was starved, he was burned, his arm was broken, he was even stabbed once, and probably one of the worst things, he was tricked into believing that his mother cared for him again. This was just an act to avoid a child services agent. However, he was finally freed from his torture in the fifth grade.
I thought the book was okay. It wasn’t one of the best that I’ve ever read, but not the worst. It was a bit graphic in some places. Child abuse wasn’t even heard of until the release of this book. I’m sure that it happened, but it wasn’t a topic that came up in everyday conversation. It’s sad that things like this happen, but the sad fact is that they do.
In summary, A Child Called It is about the true story of probably one of the worst cases of child abuse ever reported. It is a very sad story, however it shows that someone can go through the most horrible things and be alright afterward. It is quite remarkable.
I give this book three stars.
The book is called "A child called It" by: dave peltzer. The setting of the book is california 1971. The book is about a boy in first grade (Dave peltzer) and his mom turned into a alcaholic; but she wasn't always like that.l Dave used to have a loving faimly, but his mom turned into a alcaholic and started to beat him. Then when he went to school no one really liked him and kids called him names like "peltzer smeltzer." Just because he didn't take a shower.
The first part of the book is the end because it is one of those novels. My first point is his dad could have done somthing but he didn't do anything but say we wi8ll get out of here someday. T^hen his mom had all of the punishments ready for him when he got home and he slept in the basement a majority of the time. The there was a thing called the gas chamber. That was where dave's mom would take a bucket of clorox and amonia. Then she put dave in therewith the bucket and it would make a grey fog.
I would say the worst was when she put him on the stove. What she does is she makes dave take off his clothes and get on the stove. I thought he was going to die but he wrote the book so he didn't. The last one is when she filled the bath tub with cold water and shoved his head under water. Then made him hold his breath as long as he could until his lungs are bursting.
I thought this was a good book and not because dave gets beaten. It's because it shows how lucky kids are to have a nice mom and care about that. I'm not saying that he has bad parents. He has parents that have no respect for them. The only thing his mom cared about is about is beating dave that is pretty much it. Dave's dad really didn't know he existed anymore he never came home. In conclusion I think dave peltzer's faimly trewated him as dirt. He is lucky he didn't die and I'm not saying that in a bad way either. He is lucky to survive all the things she did to him. In the end a police picks him and says "your free."
In conclusion Daves parents was one of the meanest faimly I have ever seen.
The book that I have recently read was called "A child called it." It was a very good book, but a the same time a very sad book to read. The setting takes place somewhere in California. The book is basically about a young child named David who's mother is just an awful and mean and horrible person. She abused him all the time for no reasons whats so ever. David didn't really have a good relationship with his father and the more and more his mother hurt and abused him, the further and further david and his father disconnected and got seperated.
The books summary is about David and his whole life. David was constantly abused by his mother and his father didn't really do anything about it. But before any of this abused started, David and his mother and father and whole family used to be very close. They were all a very loving and caring family. Everyday when David and his brothers came home from school, dinner would always be ready on the table for them right whenever they walked into the front door. Guess who always made that dinner every single night? Davids mother. Every weekend Davids mother would always make some kind of fun plans for the whole family to do and participate in. The family always had fun together aand enjoyed spendng time together. Then his mom started drinking and becoming more and more depressed and david had no clue why. Then she just started treating him differently from his other two brothers, and not in a good way. At first, davids mom atleast gave him the dignity to sleep on the top bunk of the bunk bed. Then she moved him under the dining table in the kitchen with some newspapers. His last resort was sleeping in the cold basement on a hard wooden soldier cot that was in no way comfortable or cozy. Davids mother never fed him so while he was sitting on the cold basement stairs, he could hear his mom and dad and two brothers eating and having a good time upstairs enjoying their hot dinner. Oh what David would do for even a little piece of that food. He then would have to go upstairs after they were finished eating, scrap all the leftover food into the dogs bowl or into the garbage, and wash the dishes in scolding hot water that his mother would make. David would start steeling other kids snake foods like twinkies at school so he could have atleast some energy to go on for the rest of the day. The principal then found out so when he called Davids mother and she found out, David knew he was really gonna get it when he got home. Some of the punishments that Davids mother put him through were the gas chamber. The gas chamber is where Davids mother would put him in the bathroom to clean it, but she would put a bucket of Clorox and amonia mixed together to creat a deadly gas like smell. The door would be closed so he had no way to fresh air, which meant no way to breathing. Another awful thing that Davids mother did was make divid lay on top of the stove so he would burn. David was smart though so to stall, he looked at the clock to see how much time he had and he kept asking his mother questions so she would answer him instead of making him lay ontop of the hot stove. Another punishment was the called the mirror treatment. That was where his mother would smash his face against a mirror so it would shadder , and then make him look at himself in it and repeat over and over again "I hate myself." David's mother was an awful and horible person and he only had one pair of shoes and clothes. His clothes had more holes in it than swiss cheese and his shoes had holes in the souls so sometimes, David just went without them. He had an awful lifestyle that no child should ever have to go through.
Continued .. To evalute this book, I really liked it. I didn't enjoy reading it because it was so dicriptive and horrible that sometimes, I just had to put down the book and stop reading for a while to process everything that happened. I recomend that everyone should read this book, but only if you wont cry every time you read something terrible in it. I have to admit that I did cry two different times within this book but I can't remeber which parts they were.
another summary about the book that I'm going to tell you about is the ending. The ending was very sad but definetly in a good way. At the end of the book, David finally told someone a little bit about what was going on and then it was also starting to show a lot sense david had no friends whats so ever and he would always come to school with bruises, bumps, scrathes, and burns so people started to suspect that something was going on. At the end of the book, a social worker came to get David so he could finally go to live in a nice house that every child should have the chance to grow up and live in.
This book is an excellent story to read. I highly recomend that everyone read this book because it can really teach all of us a big life lesson. we think that sometimes are life is hard and that there's no hope, but just remember Davids situation that he was in.
The story’s name would be “Child Called It” it is an autobiography by Dave Peltzer, which means the narrator would be Dave Peltzer. There is Russell (littlest brother), David, Stephen Joseph (the father), Catheren Roerva (the mother/abuser), Ronald and Stan (brothers). That is the family of the Peltzer. Also David is the one who gets beat every day by his mother. His brothers never get beat, mother treats them like angels and they get away with everything unlike David.
The story is about how David gets beat everyday by his mother. Now it wasn’t always like this, in kindergarten she was a wonderful lady she did all kinds of things for her sons and her husband. They went to a lot of different places, well at least when she was a good mother. She would let David eat with them, and all sorts of different things that’s was good. Now she is a drunk that hits her child every day and drives her husband away, making him to start to be a drunk. He used to come in about ten minutes or so and kiss everyone, but now he doesn’t even show up he just goes straight to the bar and doesn’t come home until around three four o’clock and has to leave at seven-thirty in the morning. When he isn’t home she will torture him, play dead wrong games with him that would have killed him if he didn’t find a way to survive.
I think that the book is a nice book; it’s just that I don’t think that was appropriate what his mother had done to him. All those things that she had done to him had too many details. I think that he should’ve left way before he did, the neighbors should’ve done something to help him. I’m real sure that they heard him screaming or heard her screaming at him if you think how many times she yelled at him. They would have to hear some of it; I mean come on now she yelled at him every day and at every time of the day she could.
(continued) In summary, David Peltzer gets beat every day by his mother. Which is a drunk and now his father is too. The family of David Peltzer is a wreck. They obviously hate each other now because of the mother, she has ruined the family completely well maybe not the brothers, but I doubt with David gone, and now they are screwed.
I rate this book a four, I would’ve made it a five but it kind of made my stomach hurt if you think about it. Like I said before, there were too many details excpecially with the stove treatment. With the details with the burning skin and the flesh and everything, that was just nasty.
The child called it, By.David pelzer. He was just a young little boy who just wanted to fit in with with everyone else. Until his mother started drinking, david was always abused for no reason at all.
David had to finish every single chore he had or he would get abused and he wouldn’t get to eat. The only thing he would get to eat was the left overs from his brother ceral bowls. But therefore if his mother would catch him doing that she would bet him.
In march 5,1973, daly city, california, David pelzer His mother would always abuse him when she got drunk. The first thing she did to him was slap him across the face just for putting his hands out of the hot water. David liked to go to school but when he went he would still twinkies and other types of foods out of kids’es lunch boxes, because his mother would never let him eat. Every day david has to go to the nurse Ms.moss so she can find any new cuts or bruses, scares. All the teachers felt sorry for him because of what his mother does to him. The nurse writes down if he has any new makes so that she can tell the principal Mr. Hansen.
Mr. Hansen told david he was going to call his mother, If he would call david would get in lots of trouble. After Mr.Hansen sent david off to class, he called his mom, david arived at Mrs.woodworth’s English class. when he walked pasted all the other students they helled there nose’s and hissed as he walked passed to sit in the back of the room. As the day went on david was called into talk to his teachers and a police officer. They wanted to ask david a few questions but he wouldn’t answer them. Later on, david went home and got abused by his mother for telling the principal. They sent david away somewhere where he wouldn’t get abused again. I don’t like this book because david got abused by his own mother every day of his life. However, his mom would make him sleep in the garage, under the dinning room table. And when david went to school he would be called nasty names just because he had holes in his clothes and stinks. The other reason I don’t like this book is because his own mother was the one who beat him when she got drunk. Also david got beat everyday. When david went back to scholl a police officer put him in the back of the car and took him somewhere where he wouldn’t get abused. David was kinda surprised he was going to somewhere to be free and not get abused by his mother.If I was to rate this book I would give it a 2 because, it was a reallt terable book about this little kid I feel really sorry for him if he went to my school I would always help him out.
In the atrocious autobiography A Child Called "It" the author, David Pelzer, tells of his hideous childhood. This terrible story occurs in Daly City, California. Most of the story takes place in the home of David where his alcoholic mother cruelly abuses him which includes physical and mental abuse. More abuse takes place at school where kids make fun of him for his appearance and smell; David can't help these facts, it's not his fault.
David started life in a loving, kind family. They went on vacations and family trips, and they all loved each other. But, as they say, all good things come to an end; David's mother and father began to grow farther and farther from each other. As the relations between his mother and father began coming to an end, alcoholism began. Because David's mother associates him with his father, she takes her anger out on him. At first, the punishments were minor such as doing all the chores and saying he was a bad boy. When Roerva, David's mother, found these punishments not helpful she went to greater extremes by making him sit in a bathtub filled with cold water and not eat for several days. Things quickly began to escalate when his mother broke his arm, burned him, and stabbed him. The worst part is, she didn't feel any pain in hurting and torturing her child. Roerva then settled with a "game" called the gas chamber in which she would enclose David in the bathroom with a bucket of Ammonia and Clorox as the poisonous gasses filled the room. David's eyes burned and his throat too as he suffocated and nearly died. Luckily, David had the will to survive in spite of everything; I would not have had the will to survive.
This novel, A Child Called "It", was a life changing story; it really put my life into perspective. I realize how lucky I am to be living the way I do. Now I know the truth about child abuse, and it disturbs me. Abuse, if recognized, should never be hidden; no one should ever be treated the way David Pelzer was. I now, always, remember not to be so quick to judge people. In the end I think what really got through to me is that I should be thankful that I am so privileged.
In conclusion, I believe David Pelzer's novel should be recognized, not only for its life lessons but also for its truth. I recommend this book if not for anything, truth and awareness. I was unaware of how child abuse could play such a toll on someone until I read A Child Called "It". Abuse is a growing problem and if I become aware of any abuse I will take a stand for that person no matter what. No one should ever have to endure the unjust pain of David.
I give the autobiography A Child Called "It" by David Pelzer five stars for its life lessons and descriptive writing.
The book that I recently read was “The Child Called”. It was a very inspirational story to everyone that has read it. It took place somewhere in California. The author was Dave Pelzer which was also the main character. The story was definetly unforgettable.He was brutally beaten but still had the courage to live to tell about it. He had the strength to to take all his mother gave to him and still survive through it all.
The summary, Dave Pelzer was beaten to the max and starved. His mother was a major acholic who tourted and nearly left her own so dead. So he had to stay strong and take all of the games his mother played just to stay alive. He was going to give up just yet he wasn’t going to give up just yet, he wanted her to pay, he was gonna play her games and maybe think one day someone will find out. But he wasn’t a boy anymore he was a “IT”. Dave slept numerous places in the garage, on an army cot, under the table, and even in his fathers bed. His mother starved him and when she let him eat which was hardly ever she would give him scraps for the dog bowl or spoiled food. Most of the time he snuck it which she found out so she made him throw it up in a bowl and make him eat it all. He was not allowed to go anywhere. He was only allowed to go to school.
countied. Next, He had nobody to go to. He wsa not allowed to tell anyone what was happening at home. School was his safe place though. His mom would make up lies to tell everyone that asked. His life was a living nightmare. He also dreamt of his dad being superman and that’s what basically kept him alive. But he finally found a wonderful woman to tell everything to and it was a school nurse. Yet school told the principal even though she basically promised not to. The principal called the CPA so they all had a meeting and dave lied and said nothing was wrong but he still got introuble then ever.
The evaluation, This book was very upsetting and hard to put down. Everything was happening so fast. I thought it was very heart stopping. This is the best book on child abuse. It is deffinetly the worse case of abuse. You can just feel Dave go through all the fear, loss, pain and wanting to just get revenge on his horrible mother. When I first read this book I just wanted to bawl my eyes out. He had no hope to ever be helped. I give this book five stars and everyone from the age 13 and up should deffiently read this.
The next summary, To finish up everything this book was very brutalizing and mind changing. You never know whats going on in someones. This kid was brutally beatin and emotionally drained.He lost all hope in everything. He stopped believing in God and everything else. He never lived a normal life. He lived in a nightmare that he would never end. This story really awakened me I see how bad child abuse can really get. He always dreamed about his family loving, feeding and playing with his family. Instead he was just dreaming. He was in reality and it was not to good for him. But in the end he was finally free.
The book we just read. "A child called it" was an amazingly written book. it was well thouhgt out and written. I couldnt imagine what it would be like to live with someone who would constantly beat and abuse me. I could barely read on and on in this book due to the fact this kis is getting beat and abused. i just hate the feeling of the gas chamber when david was forced into the bathroom with a bucket of two different acids. i forget the names.
The beggining of the story was when he was with his real mother and she would beat him and cut him. she is the one who put hiim in the gas chamber in the bathroom. i felt so bad for david peltzer because this story is really true. some people cried while reading this but i didnt really think of all that much besides of him getting beat. Like i said, I hate reading these sad stories. there so sad when they can get every example to be like your there watching it. I love this story, well i only love one part. that is when david gets taken away from his mother because he finally told someone that she was beeting him. David was often starved because his mom thought he was aa bad boy, she even made him look in a mirrow and call himself a bad boy, which i hated that part. because there are not bac kids, just kids with bad decisions, but this wasnt a decision he made. he was forced to do these things or there would be concequences. I dont really agree with most people. some people just laugh and tell themselves that they are fine if its not them. which i disagree. its not right or fair for some kids for some to be beat and some to be spoiled. i would not like to have the kind of mothers he had. he had two mothers. The firse one was the worst. she made him swallow some acid that made him not be able to breath for a while. The second mother, and the father would get drunk at four o-clock every day. thats when they couldnt control their minds or when they beat him. well both didnt beat him, it was just the mother that would. the father wouldnt really pay attention. One part in the story was when the mother stabbed david and when david went t oshow the father, all he said was "Go back and do the dishes or we both will get in trouble."
And the conslusion for this story is that, everyone gets beat once in a while, but not everyday, or every week. The dad wouldn’t say anything to his beatings because when the mothe r was drunk, she would hurt the father also. I wouldn’t be scared of her if I was the father, I would just try to calm her down and like tell her to stop. Or if she doesn’t ill take the kids and some money and go gett and appartment or a trailer until I have enough money to send them to college or something to get out of the hell house.
This is a book revuie on the book called A Cild Called It. Tis is a autobicogerfy about Dave Pelsure, also he is the auther This is one of the most servere child abuse case in California. Tis took place in Daly City California. The year and date is March 5,1973. That was a cupple of years before her was getting abused. His mom and dad had a happy hour it started at 3:00 pm and it did not end untill they wanted to go to bed. that was normaly until 1 or 2 in the morning.
Catherine is his moms name. she is the one abuseing dave. She would not let him eat. his mom did not pack him a lot of food for lunch for school. That lead to him stelling food frome= other kids. One day that he took food from a kid and he told the teacher and then the school called his mom tht he was takeing food from other kids. When he got home his mom beat him more than she already did the day before.
His dad would not tell his mom to stop hurting our kid but he did not tell her anything. his mom was drunk all the time and that is some what why she does this to him. When he would go to school he would have marks from were his mom hit him. and the techers would ask him what is going on at your house. and they would talk to his mom what is your kid doing at your house. And she said that he would be playing out side. He would not beable to go out side because his mom would not let him do any thing.
A Child Called "It" is the true story told first hand by David Pelzer the most abused child in california history. I'm sure one of the only resons that it's not the worst ever recorded is because if it was any worse the child would be dead. This wasn't just an occationaly slap in the face or being a little underfed, this kid was a slave. I find that the most sick thing is that his syblings are treated like kings, and they are taught that they are superior to him in every way. I recall a time in the book where he returened comments that his brothers had said to him, and his punishment was that he was to lay on the floor of the car to be kicked and steped on by his brothers on the floor of the car. I truly thinkk this suffering was a neccicary thing, it needed to happen so that we would understand that this happens, and it needs to be stopped. I remember the mirror treatment in the story where Dave had to stare into the mirror for hours and say "I'm a bad boy. I'm a bad boy" over and over for hours. He was on I belive two occasions was forced to eat iteams that the dogs in the house wouldn't touch. He actually ate after the dogs once. He bent down and scarrfed down the remander of the dogs food after they where done with it. He slept in the basement and often stole food to eat or ate from the trash at school, he couldn't eat the trash at home because his mother sprinkled it with ammonia. His father didn't like davids tourcher, but didn't do anything to stop it. His mother was also a binge drinker so she didn't usually have concern for his lfe. Notice I said life not saftey. He ran to school while his bothers rode in the car. He was treated baddly by even som teachers, and tormented by students. Dave had the ability to tell the whole world about his life, and described it fantasticly. Although this was good, I wish he had told about his typical day, not so much focus on the esspecially bad days, and I wish that he had gone over his relationship with the rest of his faimily and his brothers more. He also should have mentioned more I feel about his life before the abuse, and I relize that the abuse started at an early change, but he would have some memory of before. Also I think he should have talked about why he thinks he was singled out. Over all I give A Cild Called "It" three stars. Even though I found several problems I found the book hard to put down. Now on the back of the book it mentions games that left him nearly dead, even though I culd see it I wish that they where more out lined. This book made me think how fourtunate I am to live in a house where this sort of thing doesn't happen. Of course my mom works for the DHR on child abuse and neglect cases, so it make senes that I don't experience this.
David Pelzer wrote “A child called it” He was also the kid in the book. He wrote it to tell about how he got abused by his mother. It went on for 5 year. David got taken away when he was 11 years old. The cop came and took him from school and put him in a different home.
David’s Mom was a drunk and then it started tearing the family apart. When David’s mother was drunk she would beat and abuse him in any way she could think of. He was his father’s favorite so when he was home the mom wouldn’t beat him. The things she done to this boy was sad and treble. I wouldn’t have thought a 6 year old boy would have had to go through this.
I would recommend this book to anybody.It's a good eighth grade book.The book "the child called it" kept me interested clear through to the end.I liked the charcters.Made me greatful for my own parents.
I give this book 4 stars its well detailed and was a really good book.
This compelling autobiography written by Dave Pelzer “The Child called It” is one of the of the worst cases of child abuse. As the protagonist Dave Pelzer tries to keep his will to survive his mother while being tormented, hurt and abused by his mother Catherine Rovara in Daly City, California in the year of 1971
In this book Dave Pelzer was beat and sometimes not even feed also his mother played games with like making him eat Crap and putting him in a homemade gas chamber she even stabbed him and lied to the father about it and the hospital. And most of the time she didn’t even call him by his name it was either the boy or “It” but was freed after a couple years of all of that
I like the book because it teaches you a lot about child abuse and how you can maybe prevent it and I would prefer this book to most people because just so theyy can see that most kids have it rough so don’t take anything for granted and enjoy the little things that you have in life
In summary this book contains graphic words and desciptions and tells how bad this poor little child had got beat ,stabbed ,and even starved by his mother I mean myy reaction to this was to just imagine that it was me in his shose for a day
My final view would to give this book a four star rating
This compelling autobiography written by Dave Pelzer “The Child called It” is one of the of the worst cases of child abuse. As the protagonist Dave Pelzer tries to keep his will to survive his mother while being tormented, hurt and abused by his mother Catherine Rovara in Daly City, California in the year of 1971
In this book Dave Pelzer was beat and sometimes not even feed also his mother played games with like making him eat Crap and putting him in a homemade gas chamber she even stabbed him and lied to the father about it and the hospital. And most of the time she didn’t even call him by his name it was either the boy or “It” but was freed after a couple years of all of that
I like the book because it teaches you a lot about child abuse and how you can maybe prevent it and I would prefer this book to most people because just so theyy can see that most kids have it rough so don’t take anything for granted and enjoy the little things that you have in life
In summary this book contains graphic words and desciptions and tells how bad this poor little child had got beat ,stabbed ,and even starved by his mother I mean myy reaction to this was to just imagine that it was me in his shose for a day
My final view would to give this book a four star rating
Summary of Main Parts
This is the unforgettable account of the most severe child abuse cases.
It is the story about David Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable alcoholic mother: a mother who played torturous games-games that left him nearly dead.
At a young age he had to learn how to beat his mother by using time. David knew when his brothers came home or anybody else. He would use time to side track her from the beating. His mom treated him like a slave not an eight year old boy.
His mother abused him by locking the bathroom door and mixing ammonia and Clorox. Then filled the bathtub with water and submerged his head for hours at a time. She also stabbed him with a knife and broke his arm by squeezing it until it snapped.
Description
The title of this book is called A Child Called “It.” This book is called this because his mother called him an “It”. That drove his confidence into the ground. The author of the book David Pelzer was the main character of this story. The genre of the story is an auto biography. He experienced this physically and emotionally. This story took place in Dally, California.
Evaluation
This book was an excellent book but very disturbing in many ways. I could never live through this. The only thing that would push me through this would be god and basketball. I have seen someone slap a child but not stab them or put them in a gas chamber. I understand the difference between discipline and abuse she should be put in a mental hospital. I don’t think anyone deserves anything close to what he had to endure. His mother treated him worse than their house pet.
Summary
The summary of this is the book was amazing but if it would have been longer and told about how successful he is now would have been great. I am very surprised he was able to write such an amazing book. After someone gets abused like this they go crazy or kill themselves. But David Pelzer had the spirit of god with him. He said he prayed his mom got sick and she did. When I first started reading this it was horrendous. I was sick to my stomach. When he said he had to squeeze the infection out of his cut I got a pain in my stomach. This book was disturbing but excellent.
Final Review
The book was great I would give it five stars.
The title of the book is "A Child Called It". The author is Dave Pelzer. This book is an autobiography. It took place in California 1971. The mom's name is Catherine and the dad's name is stephen. David also has four other brothers, none of the other brothers get abused on david.
David was not always abused by his mother. They used to all get along and be a happy family. This soon was about to change, David's mother started abusing him when his father would leave for work. She would bang his head of a mirror or wall. One day she even tried to burn him on a stove. His mother had also stabbed him by an accident later in the book.The gas chamber amd the amonia was the worst treatment. First his mom made him drink a spoon full of amonia, it burned his troat and made his tounge raw. The gas chamber was when she would mix amonia and clorox in a bucket and the gas would fill the room and suffocate him so he couldn't breath. His mother didn't let him sleep in the house, he slept on an old army cot in the garage. The only time he was alowwed in the house was when he was doing chores or his mom let him sleep in his father's bed.
This is also a very good book. David is so vivid and the book is clearly written. It's like you can see everything he is saying, but some of the stuff is extreme. I would recomend this book to anyone. This is one of the best books I have read.
This book teaches many life lessons, you also learn about child abuse.There are many things to learn about child abuse, like how it affercts someone's life and there family. This book keeps you in suspence because your always wondering what's going to happen next. Once you start reading you won't want to stop
This is a great book. It teaches you many things you didn't know before about child abouse. It's very imformative and clearly written. The images he gives you are so vivid and his way of written is so descriptive. I wouold recommend this book to anyone and I give this book 4 stars.
The title of this boof is called "A Child Called It." The auther of this book is David Peltzer. This is a tru story about his life. This book is an autobiography. This book takes place in California in 1971. Davids mom and dad, were catherine and Stephen. And he has four other brothers.
David was abused only by his mother ande nobody else cared.He once had a close relationship with his dad but over time that realtionship feel apart. His mom would punish him even when he did nothing wrong. She wouldn't feed him and she would put him in the bathroom and almost made him die.
This book was a really good and desturbing book. David is really vived when he tells what happend to him. You can really see the picture in your head.I would recomend this book to kids who are getting abused and just for anyone to read.
This book teaches life lessons.You can learn alot from this book. Also you can learn alot about child abuse the most.How it affects the child and the mother or father. This book keeps you all excited and you cant wait to see or read whats going to happen next. Once you start reading this book you dont wanna stop.
This book is one of the best books iv'e ever read. It tought me alot about what not to do when im a mother. I can recomend to anyone.
The book “A Child Called It” is an inspirational story about child abuse. “A Child Called It” is written by Dave Pelzer. This was set on March 5, 1973, Daly City,California. This is the unforgetable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was badly beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortous, unpredictable games-games that left him nearly dead.
In the first chapter “The Rescue” David, main character, was doing the dishes and had finish on time to get breakfast. Since, he did not get any diner last night, he had to have something to eat. His mother caught David with his hands out of the water. His mother slapped him in the face, and he toppled to the floor. At the end of the first chapter, the police officer, Officer Smith, took David a few miles towards the outskirts of Daly City. They are on highway 280. David looks out his window and sees a sign that says “ The most beatiful highway in the world.” The police office says to David, “ David Pelzer, You’re free.” In chapter 2 “ Good Times”, Dave explains the good times he had with his family, before he was abused by his mother. David’s family was the “Brady Brunch” of the 1960s. Him and his brothers were blassed with the perfect parents. They lived in a modest two-bedroom house, in a “good” neighborhood in Daly City. David’s father, Stephen Joseph, supported the family as fireman working in the heart of San Francisco. His mother was truly a gifted cook. Of all the things she did for her family, creating newing and exotic meals was her favorite. Back then their house was full of pets – cats, dogs, aquariums filled with exotic fish and a turtle. Later on in the book, David gets thrown into the basement and his mother puts gas in there, and David was traped in a gas chamber. David’s mother did a lot of other stuff to him. For example, she cut his stomach, and did slot of damage to him.
The book “A Child Called It” is a very sad book, because Cathrine, David’s mother, beat up her son and did nothing to his brothers. There are a lot of things I just can’t understand. For example, I do not understand why she would hurt her own child, it is very sad. This is not one of my favorite books.
In conclusion, I recommend this book for kids ages 12 or above. I will warn you, be ready to cry. It is a very very sad book.
I will give “A Child Called It” five stars.
Four Perfect Pebbles Marion Blumenthal
****
Four Perfect Pebbles takes place in the 1930s to 1950s. Marion Blumenthal is the author of Four Perfect Pebbles. The book is about the Blumenthal’s will power to escape and survive the holocaust.
The summary of the main points would be hope and survival. Her Family was shuffled around all kinds off concentration camps with all these diseases and sick people. They starved and watched people pass away, be burned, and a lot of other things. But they still had hope. They starved, was dehydrated, sick, cold, and sad but they still survived.
The Blumenthal’s were shuffled around camps and was starved and open to all kinds of diseases. The Blumenthal family faced a lot of stuff they had to overcome but maybe the worse would be riding on a train where you know you’re going to die when you arrive at the location. Or maybe the train was the best part because the Russians freed the train.
In conclusion the Blumenthal’s faced a lot of bad things but in the end the survived and never gave up. In all it was probably hard and they did want to give up some points in time but they didn’t.
Kevin Brewer
1-2
Post a Comment