A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer

The book I read is called A Child Called It. It is written by Dave Pelzer. The theme of this book is to keep hope alive. You should have faith and dreams to have something to look forward to in your future especially when you feel you can’t go on any more. Like Dave, he felt trapped as if he was never going to be free. He used his dreams and illusions every time he was hurting to help him get away from the pain. This is what kept this little boy alive. He had something to reach for and never quit.

The protagonist is a 9 year old boy, Dave Pelzer. The setting mostly takes place in his mother’s house. All of a sudden his mother and father started drinking and had problems in their relationship. His mother is always telling him how he ruined her life and treats him worse than a dog. He sleeps in the basement and is punished very severely when he does something “wrong” according to her. His father didn’t like to argue with his mother so never really did anything. People at school didn’t know what was going on. Dave felt unloved and unwanted. He was lonely and didn’t have any friends. Since he only got to wear new clothes once a year, he was often made fun of .

David goes through several changes. In the beginning David was a very happy child and had a perfect family. His mom was very loving and took care of them. They would go on family trips and had a good time. Everything changed when his parents started fighting and got a divorce. His father started drinking and his mother started beating him and treating him lower than a animal. David at first did everything his mother ordered. He always thought his father was going to save him and take him away. As time passed by, he saw that things were just getting worse between his mother and him and his father wouldn’t do nothing about it. He lost hope and didn’t care about anything. But he started to dream at night that one day he would get out of the hell hole he was living in. He realized that if he wanted to survive he would have to be strong and beat his mother at her torturing games. He just kept thinking to himself one day I will get out of here. He started building a self-esteem. He started realizing what was happening