A Child Called It

A Child Called It, by Dave Pelzer, is an autobiography about a young boy who encounters horrifying abuse from his alcoholic mother. In the story she starves him, poisons him, torments him, and beats him to near death. He explains the terrors of being shut out from the rest of the world and obeying every brutal command or else Mother would deal with him. No one knew about his troubles at home and his family seemed to by pass it. But through it all Dave stayed strong and promised himself to somehow stay alive.

Dave came across the most terrifying conflict at age ten, when his mother stabs him in the chest. He was able to save himself with his courageous spirit and quick thinking. The conflict started when his mother warned him to finish cleaning the dishes in twenty minutes or she would kill him with the knife she had in her hand. Before long she stabbed him in the chest and Dave passed out, but didn't die. He learned to overcome the physical and emotional abuse created by his mother.

Dave's mother wasn't always the way she turned out to be. She loved her family, consisting of her husband, Dave, and her two other sons. But when Dave turned about four years old that's when it all started. She wouldn't allow him to buy new clothes and children would make fun of him at school for being the "smelly" kid. School nurses new something was up when he ran out of excuses for his huge bruises and wounds. Dave would attempt stealing food from classmates just to get something to eat, but he never escaped his mother, she always new.

The other children in Dave's family remained safe through Dave's beatings. They were never treated as horribly as he was. He wasn't even referred to as Dave, he was "It". During his mothers drinking periods she would target her rage toward Dave. They thought of her beatings as games, games that were created with her twisted imagination, and Dave would do anything to