A Child Called It Paperback – 16 April 2009

This book is written very well, descriptive and so so sad. How any mother could treat a child, never mind her own, in this way is beyond belief. She deserves to be caught, flung in the worst jail and the key flung away. David writes about his own life and how he dealt with it.This is an excellent book about a horrendous sad subject which a young boy lived through. He is so brave. I highly recommend this. I bought it for my kindle and read it right through the night!

I read this book when I was a young teenager and it’s a book, even though I’ve read hundreds of others since, that I’ll never ever forget. I’ve always mentioned it when talking about books to friends and family, always said whilst it’s an awful story it’s also a testament to a person not becoming what they know and have experienced (if that makes sense).I’m writing this review because I’ve just told my 17 year old daughter about it, she’s going to read it and has made me want to read them all again myself.In a nutshell… its tragic, it’s heart wrenching, but highlights what happens in too many family homes all over the world. Read it!

This book was so sad ,,u go through every emotion reading it ,,cant put it down ,once u start reading it ,,

I did not like this book. But that's okay. You're not supposed to like it. It's a horrible, horrible book. A trainwreck of a book. I wanted to look away, but just couldn't. I know it's the first part in a trilogy, but I doubt I'm going to read the other two books. It was too, too depressing.Actually, the person I got most angry with was the father. The mother was obviously sick and needed help. There's no other explanation for the awful things she subjected her son to. But what's the father's excuse? He just stood by and did nothing? No, that's not true - he stood by and did nothing... and THEN he abandoned the family. I don't get it. Nowhere in the book was it stated that he seemed afraid of his wife, so why did he allow her to treat their son so horribly? You don't just stand by and let your SO practically kill your son, you just don't!There were two things I would have liked to know: 1) What made David different from the rest of his brothers? Why was he the one who was treated so horribly? If his mother had had some kind of reason, just something that set him apart, it would at least be part of an explanation even if it's no excuse, but it seemed totally random. I guess it was... after all, sick people often don't need reasons for doing as they do. 2) What happened to his mother afterwards? Did she get some kind of help? Were her other boys taken away from her too? The book ended in a cliff-hanger fashion which annoyed me. Too many loose ends.

Has to be the most upsetting and the most aspiring book I have ever read. I couldn’t read it in one sitting. I had to be in a certain mood to handle being in tears. It made me cry, angry and grateful for my own children. An awe inspiring book.

This book helped me to view my childhood.

This is a relentless journey through horrific child abuse written in a simple, direct style and is only relieved by the redemptive ending. It is never entirely clear why Dave's mother takes a sadistic dislike to this one son while her other children lead a normal life, but such are the vagaries of mental illness, which his mother clearly suffered. We grow to admire Dave Pelzer and the spirit for survival that he displays.Not an easy read, but an essential read for anyone concerned with child care and child abuse issues. On that note, another book in the genre I would recommend is  Today I'm Alice: Nine Personalities, One Tortured Mind

Beautiful writing with a harrowing and heart wrenching story. A read that you simply can't put down. Reading the next book in the series is a must.