The Lost Boy
Written by Dave Pelzer
Comments: A sequel to “A Child Called ‘It’”, this book is about David Pelzer’s journey and his search for the love of a family, after being rescued from his mother’s severe abuse. He struggles to adapt into each new environment around him after being placed in foster care, as he’s moved from foster home to foster home. This book continues from it’s previous book, about David’s teachers noticing his problems and contacting the authorities, causing him to be put with a social worker, Ms Gold. The both of them go to trial against David’s mother, and after winning it, was placed in a foster home under the care of a lady he called Aunt Mary. Later on, while in the care of another set of foster parents, he gets to know someone and thinks of him as a friend till the latter gets him to do illegal things, and even got David into trouble when David was caught while putting out a fire his ‘friend’ had started at school. As a result, David was removed from his foster home and placed in a juvenile home. All this while, his mother was trying to get the court to put David away in a mental institute, and his foster parents and probabtion officer fights hard for him and wins. In his sophomore year in high school when he had only less than a year left in foster care, he started being interested in making money and eventually after he is out of foster care, enlists himself in the Air Force.
This book is really a must read for foster parents or those interested in the lives of children who go through abuse / foster care. It allows the reader to see how a foster parent’s actions can affect a foster child, and how a foster child may interpret / misinterpret certain unrelated happenings to be his fault, and how a foster parent can better understand and help a foster child. Also shows the importance and contribution of the efforts of foster parents, social workers, counsellors, probation officers etc to society. Truly, “it takes a community to save a child!”
A Child Called ‘It’: One Child’s Courage to Survive
Written by Dave Pelzer
Comments: An autobiographical account of David Pelzer’s maltreatment as a child by his alcoholic mother. His mother was originally a loving and wonderful person who would do anything for her family but when the author turned five, she gradually started abusing him. This book describes the abuse that he went through at the hands of his mother, and how he, despite his father not being able to do anything to help him, thought of his father as his protector and hero. His father constantly promised to take him away one day, but never did…and eventually left the home without him – leaving him in the hands of his cruel mother. The book describes how he was no longer considered part of the family, how he was made to sit in a prisoner-of-war position in the garage while the family had their meals, how his mother made sure there were no traces of food in the trash for him to dig out and eat, locked in a bathroom with a pail of amonia mixed with bleach, forcing him to lie naked in a bathtub of freezing water, denied food and made to starve for days, how his hand was placed on the gas stove to burn and ‘accidentally’ stabbed when he could not finish his chores in the limited time set by his mother. His only haven was school, where he was away from his mother, and where he could steal food from other children’s lunches. It’s hard to believe anyone can be made to go through all that and still survive, or even have the will to live…but this book is a reminder of the reality of child abuse in our world, in our society. More than a story of survival and victory, it’s the true story of one who was abused, but is now helping many others in desperate need!
