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May 30, 2011

Laura rated it:

This book is very likely made up from start to finish. The events in it read like Pelzer imagined the worst child abuse possible and then said, "And it all happened to me!" Yeah, right. His brother and grandmother said in an interview that it was all rubbish, too, which casts more doubt upon the whole thing. Pelzer also bought his own book in bulk so the sales numbers would put it on the bestseller list -- he just doesn't have a whole lot of credibility. Perhaps worse than the fact tha More...

121 comments like (66 people liked it)

Jan 11, 2012

Gavin rated it:

This book was horrible. Period. A waste of my time. You see, what really pisses me off with this book is this: I have known kids that have come from horribly abusive situations that are more genuine than Pelzer is in his "memoir."

The stories of his life in this book contradict one another, are extremely over-the-top and, dare I say, fabricated some. Now, before anyone wants to crucify me, look at the facts:

His family members were interviewed and stated tha More...

16 comments like (27 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2008

Eric rated it:

this book was the 'hostel', or 'saw IV' of memoirs. i don't really know why i read it. it was free, first of all. and, i guess like any normal human being, i cannot look away from a trainwreck.

'a child called it' is not very well written. you walk away with more questions than you do answers. you don't really learn anything. you do, however, come away with having read some very disturbing and disgusting passages that describe in detail a case of horrendous child abuse. i'm More...

35 comments like (51 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2011

Maria rated it:

I did not like this book. But that's okay. You're not supposed to like it. It's a horrible, horrible book. A trainwreck of a book. I wanted to look away, but just couldn't. I know it's the first part in a trilogy, but I doubt I'm going to read the other two books. It was too, too depressing.

Actually, the person I got most angry with was the father. The mother was obviously sick and needed help. There's no other explanation for the awful things she subjected her son to. But what's the f More...

8 comments like (23 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Becky rated it:

I've sat with this book on my desk for a couple weeks, unable to decide what I would write for a review. I'm wholly torn between this being one of my most-asked-for and least-favorite-ever titles. I wish the amount of times I heard "this was the first book I liked" (and the amount of times it's been billed/stolen from the library) corresponded to its quality, but I truly found it very short on redeeming qualities. Eric's Goodreads review says pretty much what I would say.

T More...

14 comments like (16 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

Why the hell did I pick this book up? It was depressing as hell and it was poorly written. It chronicles the abuse this little boy named David went through as a child. And I think abuse is too mild a term for what he went through. It was horrible. Reading the torture he endured at the hand of his own family was painful.

I came away from this book depressed. And I had several thoughts that kept running through my head. What was the point of this book? It almost seemed like a shrink to More...

16 comments like (14 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2008

Kohei rated it:

A Child Called "It" HCI, 1995 $9.95
By Dave Pelzer ISBN 1558743669
One very common issue that goes around in our world is child abuse, it happens everywhere and it is something that is horrible and cannot be stopped. Dave Pelzer, the author of the autobiographical book, A Child Called It, shows the very dark corners of child abuse by viewing to the readers his horrific life as a young boy living with his mother that constantly abused him.
Dave Pelzer, who lived w More...

11 comments like (23 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Briynne rated it:

Easily the most terrifying book I've ever read. I think I had literally repressed the memory of it, until I randomly happened across the title this week.

I experienced this book in a fairly odd way, during a week-long cheerleading camp my sophomore year of high school. My coach was reading it and somehow ended up reading the entire book aloud to my squad during breaks and at night. Once she started, we were all addicted and spent every free moment listening with rapt and horrifie More...

2 comments like (25 people liked it)

Feb 17, 2010

Laurel rated it:

YIKES. This is a man's account of the severe abuse he suffered as a young child through the hands of his mother. Apparently, there is some doubt on whether the story is actually true, or whether the author merely made the whole thing up. I don't know enough about the controversy to speculate, so I will just give the author the benefit of the doubt and assume this is indeed a factual memoir of his childhood. If that is the case, then he most certainly deserves major admiration for having ove More...

3 comments like (8 people liked it)

Mar 13, 2008

sandiie rated it:

A Child Called "It":One Child's Courage to Survive
Dave Pelzer
Health Communications, Inc., 1993, 153 pp., $9.95
ISBN 1-55874-366-9

Have your parents ever abused you? In The Child Called "It", a true story that can bring tears to the eyes of anyone with a beating heart, Dave, the protagonist, is abused in the most horrifying ways possible. What kind of mother would want to hurt their own little child? David's mom's actions can prove that wrong.
More...

27 comments like (15 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2007

Nate83 rated it:

This is a book about a child his name is David. He is telling about his life when he was young. He had three brothers and mom and a dad. His dad was a local firefighter and his mom was a stay at mom kind of person.
They had a really good life they went on vacations and had picnics.
He looked up to his dad and loved his mom very much. He use to been able to play with his brothers but his dad stared to not come home because of his job he had to stay there 24/7. So his mom started to tak More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Whitney rated it:

I'm pretty sure that the book should have been called.
A Child Called "It”: One Child's Courage to Survive...to Write a Craptastic Book.

Call me heartless, but I hated the book. Not because it was sad, because it obviously bullshit. I don't really see the point of writing this book, the only thing I can think of is publicizing his past child abuse... and the point of that is? Well to make money, he didn't attempt to write a book that's going to help anyone, he wrote it More...

11 comments like (16 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2008

`. kateelynn * rated it:

Oh my god, what can I possibly say about this book? When I first started reading this book last year, I was just so hooked to it and I just wanted to know everything about this book. It was all about this author's childhood gone horrible with the extreme abuse, the torture and suffering. I really couldn't believe my eyes, the author described like, everything he went through, all the pain he had to go through, how he felt and everything. I could really understand how he felt but one thing about More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2008

Sammy rated it:

Okay, this is going to be a short and sweet review since it's a non-fictional autobiography and you can't really critique things like characters and story. But I'm going to say what I can...

This book was a hard one to read yet I couldn't put it down. There's a different something in Dave's story that will keep different people reading. Mine was: Why? I wanted to know why his mother did this. I wanted to know what made her do it. I wanted to know how she could to it. And I want More...

0 comments like (12 people liked it)

Nov 23, 2008

Lei rated it:

This book was really sad. The fact that it was a real story made it way sadder. At one point when i was reading the part about the bathroom and mirror treatment, i almost cried. I can't believe that anyone would do such things to their own flesh and blood.If i was David, i would have tried to run away or tell somebody at my school of the things that were happening at home.
The person that i actually hated more that the mother in the book was David's father.How can you sit around watching a More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 06, 2011

Shy rated it:

When I first picked up this book, I never know that reading it would be this traumatic. It is a very short read but I seriously have to say that it is not the kind of book that you read for pleasure. Some parts of it were very disturbing, which when coupled with vivid details of the abuse that the author had to endure, making it one of the most depressing books I ever read.

A Child Called “It” portrayed the childhood life of Dave Pelzer, where he was severely abused by his own mother. More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2008

Carrie rated it:

I know it's not nice to burn, stab, poison, starve or otherwise torture your kid, but damn! If THAT can't motivate a boy to do the dishes in less than half an hour, how's he ever gonna learn?!

Seriously, though. I'm enjoying this short little autobiography from a "glad it wasn't me" perspective. The only problem is I can't believe a book so poorly edited became a New York Times Bestseller. The man uses commas like they're going out of style and uses "everyday" ins More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2009

Neaka rated it:

I really don't know what to say about this book. It was amazing, depressing, horrible and heartbreaking all at the same time. I remember when I read it too. I was at my cousins house in LA, and I was bored, so my aunt when into my cousin's room and found me some books. A Child Called "It" was one of them. I still recall how I sat there in my other cousin's room, completely devoured in it. I was in fourth grade, so I don't think I fully comprehended the severity of what happened to Davi More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2008

Trevor rated it:

I read A child called "It" for my fifth book report. This is a heart wrenching true story about the author of the book when he was a kid. His name is David Pelzer and he is the main character in the book. He gets abused by his mom everyday without a break. She takes her frustrations out on him for no reason. It is one of the saddest books I have ever read. In parts it is so sad you hardly hold back the tears for the pain that this little kid is feeling. It is even more sad becau More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2009

Audreyparra rated it:

Wow this book was amazing! I think.. well I know this is the best book I have ever read. Its about a six year old boy that lives with his mother, father, and two brothers. His dad, a workign guy barlety at home. His brothers are older then him, so he got teased. His mother was a good mother at first, in his early ages. As he grow up she started to beat him and scream at him. He goes through this for many years, adn sometimes his mothjer went to far. I Liked this book because it shows you what mi More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2008

Arrianne rated it:

Written from the point of view of the abused who writes a first person narrative with an adults comprehension of events that happened to him as a child.
Whether or not the account is exaggerated or not, the way this book is written makes it very tiresome.

I think this book has gotten a lot of people's attention and I feel that's definitely a positive thing, but the downside for me is the book accomplishes little else. It just seems like a very public rant or "dump" for More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 14, 2011

Hildur rated it:

This was read to me when I was about 10 years old (maybe a year or two older).

I generally don't like books where people tell you how horrible their life was. Why would you willingly want to read about other people's misery? I at least don't get any satisfaction from it.

Misery and abuse can work in a story if it's well told and has something in it besides descriptions of torture. As far as I remember this was one of those that didn't have anything extra about it.

More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 01, 2008

Nojood rated it:

I am sorry but this is too much. It just cannot be true.

14 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 07, 2012

shannon rated it:

A Child Called It by David Pelzer was published in 1993. This is a auto biography / child abuse book. The author has won many awards he was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans. It has 109 pages and took about 2 days to read because I didn't want to stop reading it. The main character is David, the author, his mother, his father, his two brothers and school teachers. The setting was year round, it took place mostly at Davids house and school.
David's house was the setti More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 14, 2011

Brandon rated it:

This book in my opinion is a very heart warming book. It is about a kid that has 2 brothers. He lives with them his dad and a mean mom. He lives down in the basement and eats scraps from the leftovers. His brothers kinda like him but since his mom tells them to be mean then they are. His dad is the only one that can save him. He dreams about it all the time. His name is David. He runs to school when his brothers get a ride. If he wants to eat he has to get all the chores done within a More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 14, 2010

Kayne rated it:

Kayne Kulman
Romaniuk/Moyer
Reading/L.A Book Review 3
19 October 2010
The Wide Window:
The danger is just beginning!
The Wide Window, by Lemony Snickets, is a story about three main characters named Klaus, Sunny, and Violet. These characters go through more dan More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 12, 2010

Courtney rated it:

I'm not 100% sure that the stuff in this book is actually legit... but if it indeed is, HOLD COW!

My overall impression of this book was just "wow"... I had to stop about half-way through because it was so powerful. I finished this book about a week ago, and I still can’t get the mental pictures of a poor little boy being forced to lay on a stove.

The plot of this book was fine, I guess. I’m not quite sure how the author got from a beautiful mother and happy hou More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2010

Jenny rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 02, 2011

Christina rated it:

I don't really know where to begin here. Pretty much everyone has at least heard of this book, so I don't think I need to go on and on about how HORRIFYING Mr. Pelzer's childhood was. It really is remarkable that he grew up to be a healthy, well-adjusted, successful adult. At least, he seems that way. I guess one can never truly know.
Of course, the writing itself doesn't really deserve mention, and that's not the point. The point, I believe, was to inspire, inform, and give hope. B More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 13, 2010

أفنان rated it:

* أعجبني فيها كفاحه وصبره وجلده على الرغم من صغره وعلى الرغم من معاناته وتحطيمه واضطهاده بشكل فظيع:/, فهي تقدم نموذج رائع لمن اضطهد وعومل بقسوة في صغره, فتغلب على كل هذا ولم يصبح مجرما عالة على مجتمعه كما الغالب,,
وربما فيها شيء من التسلية لمن يضطهد من زوجة أبيه ويحسد من يعيش عند أمه,,
* أيضا أعجبني حديثه عن لطف الله به في النهاية بعد أن أساء الظن به كثيرا:/
* وأنا أقرأ حديثه عن كرهه الشديد لوالده وكل من علم بمعاناته الشديدة ولم يقدم شيء:( تساءلت هل يحق لأخواننا المسلمين المضطهدين More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

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