Monday, May 25, 2009

A Child Called 'It'

Dave Pelzer’s A Child Called ‘It’ is something which I have been wanting to read for the longest time. In the past few years since the book was published it has garnered great reviews as well as controversy surrounding Pelzer’s claim of being abused.
A simple and easy book to read, the book is told from a child’s perspective. The horrific details of his torture in the book are graphic. The second born child of five siblings, I found it difficult to comprehend why his mother singled him out from the rest and abused him while the rest were treated normally. He suffered horrendous acts of abuse from his mother and Pelzer’s memoir reveals how he is affected by it.

Whether Pelzer’s account is true or not I guess we’ll never know though the teachers who rescued him stand by his story. Steven E. Ziegler one of the teachers that saved him stated that he found out Pelzer’s case was “the third-worst child abuse on record in the entire state of California”.

Pelzer’s memoir is a journey into the mind of an abused child; his thoughts, feelings and most importantly his will to survive and rise above it all.

Note: This book counts as the second book read for the Non-Fiction Five Challenge.

5 comments:

christina said...

Oooh, I just finished this book yesterday. Can I just say that I've never been more disturbed before? I've never had such a visceral reaction to a book!

Unknown said...

I agree. It was quite disturbing that a mother could do such things to her own child! Anyway, please do send me your link once you've reviewed the book okay?

Katrina said...

I read this about 7 years ago when I started working with abused children. I agree with you both quite disturbing.

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

This book was such a sad memoir. I recall some of the details, even though I read it so long ago.

Cheryl Pitt said...

That sounds really interesting, but I don't know if I'm strong enough to read it.

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