David Pelzer Chapter Summaries

This book starts on March 5, 1973, Daly City, California. Most of the events in this book take place in the home of young David Pelzer. The book begins with David doing a chore his mother has assigned. Right away, you are shown just a bit of the abusive relationship between David and his mother. David is rushing to do the dishes because he knows if he does not complete this chore, he will have to take on the wrath of mother and be deprived of food. As soon as his mother enters the kitchen, his mother begins smacking David. At school, David is a outcast. He smells and wears the same torn up cloths because she does not allow him to clean himself. She gets pleasure out of humiliating him.
Although, David’s mother has not always been abusive. In the second chapter, the author takes us to a time before the abuse began. When David was young, he got into some trouble and even tho his brothers were often doing the same things, David’s punishments were typically more severe. She smashed his face in a mirror and was told to

stand there, look at himself, and repeat “I am a bad boy.” She made all of the boys, and soon only David, search for things she “lost” in the house. This lasted for quit awhile and one day David had forgotten what he was looking for so he asked his mother and she punched him in the face without even taking her eyes off the tv. Sometimes David could tell if it would be a good day or a bad day, by the way she dressed. Once summer hit his family went on a family vacation and mother didn’t him go because he “was a bad boy.” David tries to run after his family and his aunt tells mother that David tried to run away. As he tries to tell mother why he had done so she shoved a bar of soap down his throat. His father was his source of safety and comfort. When father was home that meant, David’s punishments were not as severe and he got to eat dinner with the family.
One of mother’s tortures was not allowing him to eat. After going for so long with little food, he begins to steal food from kids at school. Kids soon found out and the principal called home. This resulted to him being beat more, feed less and she degraded him to the level of calling him “the boy.” She never allowed his to eat at the table with the family. Another time mother was called to the school for a meeting because of David’s appearance so she manipulated them into thinking David did it to himself for attention.
Even when father was home.

She also banished him to the basement, forcing him to stand at the bottom of the steps (sitting was not allowed) and listen to them eat. When this first began, his father would sneak him food, but when the fighting progressed between his parents, he stopped sticking up for David. After awhile he would begin to lose hope and wish, he was dead. Just before he was saved, David had given up all hope on praying to god. He believed no one could save him from his miserable life. He was alone and he accepted it. He began to wish his mother would drop dead and feel the same, maybe even worse, amount of pain he had felt all those years. David also grew to hate his father whom he once admired. Dave hated himself as well. He thought that everything that was happening to him was his fault because he had let it go on for so long. He hated himself so much that he wished he were dead. Even school no longer had the appeal it once did for

him.
A Child Called “IT” is a very graphic and emotional memoir about a boy who was abused. This is a very hard read but overall I would have to say I loved it. This book gives the people an image about what could really go on behind closed doors and what family members are capable of doing to a child. Although, I had to put the book down a couple of times to collect myself it really opened my eyes and showed me there is real evil out their. This book makes you extremely grateful for what you have. I had many mixed feeling while reading this book. I was happy, sad, and furious but I could not take my eyes off the book. The amount of details he included in the book was horrifying yet phenomenal. It created great imagery as if you were there watching it happen like a memory or a movie. I believe the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around was the fact that he mentions the school nurse knew about the abuse but never said anything until it worsened. He had said on page 8 paragraph 3 “the school nurse comes out and leads me into her office, where we go through the normal routine” indicating that she already had an idea of what was going on, so why not report it? I understand she probably wanted to build a case and make it solid but she should not have taken as long as she did.
I think this book is great for raising awareness to children of abuse but isn’t exactly a book for anyone. I would not recommend this book to just anyone because it takes an emotional toll reading it. Even tho it is short this book goes into extreme details and can be difficult to comprehend. I think you would have to be interested in this kind of genre of writing and graphic details to be able to read it. I was once in foster care and I had met kids who had been in a situation similar to some events that had happened in the book, which is one of the reasons I had gotten interested in the book. Another reason was, I am studying psychology.