Like many other people, I judge books by their covers. However, you cannot tell the quality of the contents of a book just by looking at the material used to hold it together.
When I chose the book A Child Called ‘It’, it was solely based on the book’s appearance, the book turned out to be absolutely nothing like what I thought it’d be.
The cover of the book is a young boy smiling up at the clouds, my first thought was maybe it’s about a boy who got bullied and everything turned out OK for him in the end, but as soon as I read the first page I realized how wrong I was. The author of A Child Called ‘It’, Dave Pelzer wrote several books about his childhood and what it was like growing up in his family and how he got out of the unsafe environment he was in.
Pelzer was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother when he was only in the first grade. Pelzer’s mother did some horrific and unimaginable things to him. Pelzer was one of four boys but it seemed that he was his mom’s least favorite. The things that Pelzer’s mom would do to him left him nearly dead.
A Child Called ‘It’ was based on the brutal things that Pelzer’s mom inflicted on him as a kid. The book was so detailed that I had to stop reading at a certain point. Pelzer talks about how his mom was not always an abusive drunk, at one point they were a loving regular family and his mom was the best mom that showed him so much love. After things went down hill and began to become more than just a regular time-out in the corner, Pelzer realized the only time he was safe was when his dad was home. When Pelzer’s father was not home, he was helpless and once his dad moved out and left for good, he was as good as dead if he didn’t get out.
Things started slow, Pelzer went from being sent to the corner to being forced to sleep in the basement with minimal to no clothes. Whenever his mom would be mad he knew that running was no use because evidently it would only make it worse for himself. No matter who made his mom so angry, she would only attack him. Pelzer’s mom has pulled his arm out of it’s socket, put his hand over a stove, made him live in the basement and even starved him.
In the beginning it wasn’t so bad, if Pelzer didn’t finish his chores on time then he wouldn’t be able to eat dinner. Then it became, if she was in a bad mood he didn’t eat at all and if he did it would only be the scraps from his brothers plates which would be very minimal. Pelzer began stealing food at school and digging in garbage cans, if his mom found out she would make him throw it all up and then eat the throw up. If Pelzer begged and pleaded for food, which he tried his best not to, his mom would make him eat his brothers bowel movements from his brothers diaper.
Eventually, when Pelzer is in the fifth grade teachers began to notice the bruises and marks on Pelzer. They noticed his ripped, dirty clothes and how bad he smelled along with his huge weight loss. Pelzer’s teacher made him go to the nurse and eventually the principal showed up with DYFS. Pelzer was so tired of the abuse, he confessed and told them all about his mom. Pelzer was taken out of his moms custody and then the book fast forwards to Pelzer happy with his own family and treating his son how a child should be treated and taking his son to places his parents took him before the abuse started.
The book was extremely detailed and disturbing but because of how everything turned out in the end. The book is an amazing book and Dave Pelzer is an excellent author. Although I liked the book, I would not recommend it to anyone in a grade level lower than a junior in high school due to the content. Also, I don’t recommend eating while reading this book.
