A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer

My book is called A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer. It has 182 pages, all of which are full of sadness. The genre is an autobiography of Dave Pelzer’s abusive childhood. My book is a terrifying story of a mother who used to be loving, but became abusive because of alcohol. She took out her anger on Dave, her youngest son. Dave’s father was his Superman. He relied on his father to sneak him small bits of food when he was starved, and to talk to him when he was lonely. But when his father left his mother because of her insanity, Dave had no one. He started to rely on school to get food. He would steal from other kids’ lunchboxes during recess. This would result in more beatings from Mother. I decided to read this book because my mom told me about it a long time ago. It seemed like an interesting book. A Child Called “It” was published by the Omaha Press in 1993.

One of her tactics was the Gas Chamber “game”. She would force him to clean the bathroom-with Clorox and ammonia. He would almost pass out because of the poison. He would cough up blood for hours on end afterward. Another “game” was the Bathtub and P.O.W. position. She would fill the bathtub with freezing cold water, and make him lay in it, naked, for hours. Then, she would make him sit on the rocks outside in the P.O.W. position for even longer. Even worse, Dave had to smell the delicious food that his family was eating-a family he was no longer a part