A Child Called It by David Pelzer

Written by David Pelzer, “A Child Called ‘It” chronicles the brutal childhood of its author. Once the loved and cared for child of doting parents, for reasons never fully explained, David Pelzer becomes the family pariah, abused unmercifully both physically and emotionally by his mother and in turns ignored and shunned by his father and his brothers. At first David Pelzer sees his elementary school as his shelter from the storm of his mother’s physical and emotional abuse, but, forced to wear the same worn clothing year after year and to steal food from his fellow classmates to feed his starving belly, he soon becomes an outcast in the classroom as well as at home. Finally, when he is in the fifth grade, concerned teachers, a school nurse, and the principal finally come to David Pelzer’s aid and call the police to rescue him from his own private hell.

“A Child Called ‘It” is both heartbreaking and disturbing. How could a mother force her child to eat his own vomit, attempt to burn him on a gas stove, ignore the stab wound she inflicted upon him, and force him to steal and eat food that even the dogs did not want to touch? It is unfathomable, but, according to David Pelzer his mother did all this and more. One of David Pelzer’s brother’s has spoken out and said that the abuse was never as horrible as his brother claims, but child abuse is inexcusable no matter the extent of it.