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Book Review of A Child Called 'It': One Child's Courage to Survive

A Child Called 'It': One Child's Courage to Survive
reviewed on


I thought reading this book would offer perspective for me in making peace with my own family history. As someone who has lived it firsthand, I am not saying that all child abuse stories are bunk. I really wish they were. This story started to not add up in so many ways very early on and it prompted me to do more research. Dave Pelzer's stories started to sound just like one of my siblings made up fantasies. While we suffered horrible things at the hands of our father, we were not abused by our mom. My sibling tells awful stories about our mom while never mentioning the real horrors.My sibling sounds just like Pelzer. The more people listen, the more fantastic the stories grow. Pelzer was interviewed with his brother who told the real scenarios behind the stories. Dave Pelzer became so agitated with the confrontation that he literally screamed at his brother "she stabbed me in the heart!" which is a jump from being stabbed in the stomach and an outright leap from the brother's scenario wherein Dave was bouncing around in the kitchen where he accidentally bumped into his mother who was cutting up some food on the counter resulting in a superficial cut that sent him violently hysterical, so she shut him in the pantry for a short time until he calmed down. You don't get "stabbed" anywhere and just heal up with no medically care, infection, or scars. No other children were "abused" in the house and there are no family members or friends who can corroborate his tales. Pure fiction.