A Child Called “It” By:David Pelzer

I chose the book, The Child Called “It” because one of my friends told me about the book. The whole story line caught my attention. I was amazed at what was going on in this boy’s life. This book, a true story, is very emotional. The title relates to the book because his mother calls the boy, David Pelzer, “It”. She does not call him by his real name. His mother treats him like he is nothing but an object. Also, I think the title fits well because it catches people’s attention and gives a clue what the book is about.

The author is attempting to teach the readers that no one should treat people this badly. David is an innocent child and does not deserve his bad childhood. David does not even do anything wrong, and his mother continued to treat him like an object. Pelzer succeeded in telling how cruel the mother is. He also teaches that people can be cruel to each other, and that it is important to teach people that kindness can go a long way. The whole book discusses his childhood. Pelzer wrote some sequels to tell the rest of his child life for the interested readers.

The story begins when he was first treated badly, in the 1960’s. His mother was a good mother until David’s father and mother started drinking. Its mother changed drastically from the alcohol drinking. The story begins in the kitchen of his house when he is doing his chores. His mother has a time limit on how fast he should do the dishes. If he does not accomplish the dishes in that amount of time, he does not get supper. In addition to the hunger, he receives a beating. The setting is very effective because the reader gets into the story. The setting also prepares you for what the mother does in the future.

The main characters are David, his mother, and father. David, the abused child, cannot escape his mother’s punishments. David’s mother is a drunken, abusive mother that refers to her child as “It”. David’s father is caring and understanding, but cannot help David escape. The mother and father drastically change after the alcohol abuse. David also changes in his attitude towards his parents.

At first, David cares that his mother treats him badly. After awhile, he doesn’t care and becomes apathetic. Finally, David tries fighting back against his parents. David’s mother was a good mother, and then she starts drinking and getting abusive. David’s caring father defends David in the beginning. Later on, his father just gives up because he cannot do anything more to protect David. I do not see why David just does not leave his family. His mother’s actions are unbelievable. At times, I can see why David stays. However when he gets stabbed, he definitely should have gotten help. Its father is also not trustworthy because he is never able to save David from the abuse.

David tells the story of his horrible abusive childhood. David is very effective and knows how to reach out to the readers. The readers become engrossed in the book and sympathetic towards David. Pelzer explains a lot of details on how he is beat, and his cruel punishments. The details make the readers more angry and sympathetic.

The plot is very simple. His alcoholic mother abuses David for the littlest reasons. Not only does he get punished for not doing the dishes, many times his mother doesn’t feed him for days. If he goes to school, she makes him vomit when he gets home to make sure he does not eat at school. David is forced to sleep in the garage or in the basement. He uses an army cot with no covers for a bed. Even in the dead of winter he has no covers to keep warm. She also abuses him by mixing bleach and ammonia and making him stay in the bathroom with the door shut. He also has to lie in the cold tub with his entire body submerged except his nose and mouth for hours at a time. When his family was on vacation, David was forced to eat his little brother’s wastes while the rest of the family was outside playing. David was a seriously abused child and the author made the book to teach everyone about the seriousness of child abuse. I enjoyed this book a lot. It is written so people of all ages can understand it. The only thing I did not like about the book is it jumped back and forth from the present to past. I did not really enjoy the ending because it didn’t finish his childhood life but there are sequels to finish his childhood. If I had written the book, I would have made his whole childhood one book. Also, I would not have jumped back and forth in time; I would write in chronological order.