A Child Called It
by David Pelzer
Summary
General Information
Here Are 7 Main Events That Happened in Each Chapter
1. The Rescue – In this chapter of the book, David had been set free and away from his mom. It tells you in the book so soon that he lives because they want you to remember that he is still alive. They do this because they then tell you about all of the terrible things happening to him.
2. Good Times – In this chapter of the book, before any of the beating had happened to him, he had a normal family, and they would always go on vacations together as a family. David’s mother would always tell him how much she loves and cares for him. He was in a family and was a normal child.
3. Bad Boy – In this chapter of the book, David had always wondered why his mother had started to do all of this terrible stuff to him. Now most of the time after this chapter, she would start to call him a “bad boy”. Every time she would do a terrible thing to him, she would tell him she did that because he was a “bad boy”. David started to wonder if he really was a “bad boy” and deserved everything that has happened to him.
4. The Fight for Food – In this chapter of the book, his mother never really fed him, she would give him scraps of leftovers. At this point he was getting so hungry that he would steel food from other kid’s lunch boxes at school. He would also start to steel food from a store, he knew that if he wouldn’t eat enough food soon or that he was going to die. He needed to do what he had to do to live.
5. The Accident – In this chapter of the book, his mother was really drunk and was crazier than before. His mother told him to wash the dishes in 20 minutes or else she will kill him, David didn’t believe her. She had a knife in her hand when she was telling him that and she came at him and fell and stabbed him in the stomach.
6. While Father is Away – In this chapter of the book, this when his father goes away for a while and he doesn’t know why. But while his father is away, his mother does even worse “games” to him. She did really bad things to him while his dad was gone because she knew that he could tell someone about her. His father doesn’t think that the stuff she did isn’t that bad.
7. The Lord’s Prayer – In this chapter of the book, this is when David is set free and gets to become a normal child and gets to be away from his mother. He’s free and he doesn’t have to be abused anymore and can have a family that actually loves him and will care for him.
Here Our 3 Traits that Describe David
1. One trait that describes Dave is that he is very brave. His mother had made up despicable games that David had to “play,” some have almost killed him. For example, one of the games that they talk about is, “Gripping my arm, Mother held it in the orange-blue flame. My skin seemed to explode from the heat. I could smell the scorched hairs from burnt arm. As hard as I fought, I could not force Mother to let go of my arm. Finally I fell to the floor, on my hands and knees, and tried to blow cool air on my arm.” That is showing how brave he is against what his mother had done to him and some things that he did saved his life.
2. Another trait that describes him is that he is determined. You can tell because throughout the book they talk about all of the horrific “games” that David’s mother made him play. Like one is when he went to go clean the bathroom and would lock him in there until he was done. Well you would think that is doesn’t sound bad, but she would then mix up some very bad chemicals and out them in a bucket and stick it in there and he had to breathe those chemicals in until he was done. He knew he had to fight for his life because of all of the evil things she did to him. He is very determined to fight for his life and show his mom that he is a strong and determined.
3. The last trait that would describe David is that he was happy. When his mother was not beating him or that he was thinking about food. He would always think that one day a hero like batman, superman, would come and save like they do in comic books. It tells you in the book; because of all of the beating and pain, he only had one thing left. That one thing left was his dreams, every night he would always dream big. It tells you in the book that it was his happy place, and would dream of having food and a family that loved him. That’s why I would give him a trait as happy. Even though all of this terrible stuff happened to him, he still would have happy thoughts through it all.
This is an Event that Effected His Life
An event that affected his life is when he was set free and away from his mother. When he was set free he was so happy and finally thought that he could live a normal life as a normal kid. But he was also scared, he was because he wasn't for sure that he was set free, he didn't believe it. He thought that it he would end up going back to his mom and have worse things happen to him than before.
I Found a Quote that Describes My Person and How it Fit Them
I found a quote that I think really fits my character. The quote reads, “To help yourself, you must be yourself. Be the best that you can be. When you make a mistake, learn from it. Pick yourself up and move on.” I think this quote fits him perfectly because what the quote is saying that a lot of things may happen in the past. You will learn from them and new things will happen. So what you have to do it move on to the future, great things are going to happen to you someday.
These Are 3 People that Influenced David and How they Did
1. His Mother- His mother did because she was the one that would always abuse him. She really did because David knew that he would have to find ways to fight her games to live. He was determined not to die from being abused by his mother. He knew that once the games got worse he had to put up a fight.
2. His Father- His father did because all he did was sit around and too afraid to stand up to his wife. He really did because David knew that if his father wasn't going to help him that he had to do it himself. He tried to tell his dad with his eyes that he needed his help. It tells you that his father feels really bad and wants to help him but he won’t stand up to his wife.
3. His Teachers- His teachers did because they are the ones that actually let him live by giving him food and water. They really did because they are the reason that David got out of there and you could tell in the book that if he didn't get away soon that he was going to die from his mother.
Here Our Some Pictures Of The Main Characters
I Critiqued This Book and Explained Why I Did
I really liked this book, it was such a detailed, and sad but exciting book. You can learn a lot about child abuse from reading this book because the author that wrote it was the child that got abused. Like for example, in the book, it always had such great detail when the author is explaining everything that had been happening. He describes everything so well and it might even make you cry. It’s such a sad book and it makes child abuse look even more evil. Another, is when, the author tells you everything that had happened to the boy. It’s very sad and scary, his mother did such terrible things to him it’s not even right. Lastly, the best part about the book is that the author is the little boy is the one that got abused. Every time he would talk about an innocent would happen, it was such a good detail that I could picture everything that was happening. That’s why I think that this was such a great book to read, and I recommend it.