Book Reflection: A Child Called It

Jerome Gatchalian
CD 4 - Parenting
Ms. Padilla
November 16, 2010
A Child Called "It" - Book Reflection First of all, I am not a big fan of reading books, but this is one book that is hard to put down. I would recommend it, not only for parents but for people who works with children as well. This book is very informative and will give its readers a whole new level of appreciation for their children. A Child Called "It" is a very inspiring story of a young boy who grew up with an abusive mother, and a spineless father who did nothing to stop it. This went on for years, from about the time David was in the first grade until he was 12 years old, until finally, a teacher stepped in. But despite all the hardships, the young boy was able to triumph, got freed from his "madhouse", and eventually wrote a book about himself. I believe that the author, Mr. Dave Pelzer, has two objectives in writing the book. The first one, to inform the readers of how a loving, caring parent can change to a cold, abusive monster, and the second, is that anyone can turn their life around as long as they are willing to fight for it. In addition, his story also shares the view point of a child being neglected. I found it
interesting how encouraging words like "Be a good boy" could mean so different to another child. I remember whenever my parents would leave us with our relatives, they would remind us to be good boys, but for us, it meant to behave, no running inside the house, or touching things that don't belong to us without any permission, to show the same amount of respect to our relatives and their properties as we would our own home and parents. The book also touches on "name calling" and how derogatory it could be and how it takes away ones individuality. Furthermore, the book also reminded me of the reasons why children act out. Because of unmet emotional needs, and lousy local conditions at home, he resorted to stealing to feed his hunger, and even stormed out of classroom one day, yelling for no particular reason. As a matter of fact, everyone started seeing him as a trouble maker, which made him hate everything around him, including himself. Another thing the story gave a good example of, is how children learn by imitation. In the beginning, his brothers felt sorry for Dave, even questioning their mother why he was being punished and not getting presents during Christmas. In the end, they started making of fun him, and beating him up like their evil mother does. Even the younger brother Kevin was turned into a "little nazi" because he sees how their mom treats "The Boy". Finally, I believe that his story encourages us to be more observant on subtle signs of child abuse. Even though this book is very informative on child abuse, there are some missing plots, such as the events that took place between his father's departure and before he was rescued, or why his mother did those things, and what happened to her after he got rescued.
There are two more books in this series, but I feel that the first one is just too short. Maybe it's the intention of the author from the start. The book also had a lot of appalling stories, and it felt that some of it might have been exaggerated by a bit. I found it hard to believe that a father would just stand there and do nothing, and when given the chance to leave, he did not even consider taking the young boy with him. I am not saying that his stories are not true, I was not
there. Nevertheless, even if only half of his stories were true, it is still tragic, and I sympathized with what he went through, and inspired by his fighting spirit to keep going. I even looked it up on the internet and learned that his story, during the 70's, was one of one of the top cases of the worst child abuse in history. Whether you believe his story or not, this book will make you sad, angry, and make you, want to make sure, to let your kids know you love them.