The book “A Child Called It” by Dave Pelzer describes to the reader the torture he endured every day by his mother. Before Dave was tortured daily, he had a relatively happy  normal life. He would play outside with his brothers, eat meals with his family, and was able to just enjoy being a kid.  His mother developed a very bad drinking problem to help her to deal with stress.  She soon became an alcoholic. His mother treated Dave like her personal slave and made him do specific chores the other children did not have to do. He had to complete them in certain time limits or she would torture Dave with different “games” that she thought up. If Dave did not finish the chores in the time limit  she would take away food. His mother starved him for weeks. Daves starvation led to him stealing food from others at school, begging for food from strangers and even stealing from the supermarket! His mother became so upset with him stealing food, that she tortured him. Some of the torture he was forced to endure was being locked in the bathroom with an ammonia and clorox mixture, made to drink ammonia, sleep in the cold garage, put his hands on the stove and burned them, and she even stabbed him!  Dave did everything he could do to please her but nothing worked and she was never satisfied. Going to school for Dave was an escape from all the torture he had at home. When one day when he arrived at school,  Dave was called to the nurses office. She  questioned him on his bruises. He reluctantly told them that his mother  had beat him. Soon a police officer was brought to the school to take him to a safe place so that his mother could no longer get to him. Dave was finally saved from all the torture by some loving and caring adults.

The book made me wonder what it was like being tortured by someone who was supposed to be the person to provide for and love you.  I could only imagine how hard it must have been for him to stay positive through the tough time he was having with his mother and why he didn’t tell anyone that he was being beaten and tortured?  I couldn’t  believe that his mother came up with such torturous “games” to try to make his life as miserable as it was. After reading this book it made me reflect about what the authors message in the story was. I believe that what he was trying to convey is that, you can overcome any obstacles in your life. Even in the worst and darkest days, Dave overcame his mothers “games”. I often still wonder why Dave’s mother allowed her personal stresses of life allow her to  treat her son the way she did by torturing him relentlessly on a daily basis for so many years.

~Bri