A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive

by Dave Pelzer
A Child Called "It": One Child's Courage to Survive
book data
14,266 ratings, 3.97 average rating, 2,678 reviews (more data...)
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published
September 1st 1995 (first published 1992) by HCI

binding
Paperback, 195 pages

isbn
1558743669    (isbn13: 9781558743663)

description
This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who ...more




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Laura
08/12/07
Laura rated it: 1 of 5 stars

bookshelves: fiction, overrated
Read in January, 2000
recommends it for: The very credulous
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 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 that Pelzer is prob...more
Like this review?   yes   (18 people liked it)
  16 comments

Eric
03/10/08
Eric rated it: 2 of 5 stars

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
Like this review?   yes   (17 people liked it)
  13 comments

Becky
07/18/07
Becky rated it: 2 of 5 stars

bookshelves: nonfiction
Read in May, 2008
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
Like this review?   yes   (9 people liked it)
  13 comments

Jennifer
11/24/08
Jennifer rated it: 1 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2002, bad-bad-bad, biography
Read in April, 2002
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
Like this review?   yes   (6 people liked it)
  6 comments

Kohei
03/23/08
Kohei rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: school-year-book
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
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
  9 comments

Kiwiria
07/05/07
Kiwiria added it

Read in January, 2007
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...more
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  4 comments

sandiie
10/19/07
sandiie rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2008
recommends it for: future/present psychologists, caring people <3
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
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  10 comments

Nate83
09/28/07
Nate83 rated it: 4 of 5 stars

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
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Briynne
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
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`. kateelynn *
03/27/08
`. kateelynn * rated it: 5 of 5 stars

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
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Sammy
03/16/08
Sammy rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: the-best
Read in February, 2008
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
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Whitney
08/04/07
Whitney rated it: 1 of 5 stars

recommends it for: Someone unbelieveibly gullible.
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 ...more
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IF I HAD ONE WISH IT WOULD BE TO COME BACK TO CITY
Read in December, 2008
recommends it for: To anyone that read it
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS BOOK IS THAT IS WHEN UR PARNETS DO SOMETHING TO U AND U DON'T LIKE IT AND U KNOW THAT U IS GET MISS TREADED TELL SOMEONE THAT WELL HELP U AND ANOTHER THING DO RUN AWAY FROM HOME.........
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  1 comment

Lei
11/22/08
Lei rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in November, 2008
recommended to Lei by: my drama teacher
recommends it for: anyone who likes to read
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
Like this review?   yes   (2 people liked it)
  1 comment

Carrie
12/31/07
Carrie rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: effed-up-memoirs
Read in June, 2008
recommended to Carrie by: Ron
recommends it for: my friends
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
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Neaka
04/08/09
Neaka rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2004
recommended to Neaka by: my aunt. even though she didn't know what it was about.
recommends it for: nobody under the age of 11
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
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Trevor
12/13/08
Trevor rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: book-club
Read in December, 2008
recommends it for: EVERYONE
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
Like this review?   yes   (1 person liked it)
  1 comment

Audreyparra
02/13/09
Audreyparra rated it: 5 of 5 stars

bookshelves: book-club
Read in January, 2009
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
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  1 comment

Laurel
04/27/09
Laurel rated it: 2 of 5 stars (review of isbn 1402505272)

bookshelves: memoir, nonfiction, psychology
Read in May, 2009
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
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Arrianne
12/27/08
Arrianne rated it: 2 of 5 stars

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
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A Child Called It (Paperback)
A Child Called 'It': Sebuah Kisah Nyata Perjuangan Seorang Anak untuk Bertahan Hidup (Softcover)
The Child Called It (Paperback)
A Child Called It (Paperback)
A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive (Audio Cassette)








groups with this book

FMHS Rockin' Readers
This Will Move You
SS English IV
English 93
CAGReaders






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The Privilege of Youth: A Teenager's Story (Paperback) by Dave Pelzer
A Child Called "It" and The Lost Boy (Hardcover) by Dave Pelzer

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