A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive | Characters & Character Analysis

A Child Called It: One Child's Courage to Survive Important People

David Pelzer

David Pelzer is the author of this autobiography. Dave was a happy four-year-old, when his mother took up drinking and became clinically depressed. It was during this time that his mother began to abuse Dave, starting with stints in the corner and escalating to physical abuse. Soon, Dave's mother began to perpetrate games of torture on the child, often starving him and forcing him to eat chemicals, as well as forcing him to sleep under a table and later in a garage. Dave suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of his mother.

Dave was a normal child in many ways during these horrendous years. Dave enjoyed school and had an imagination to rival any writer or filmmaker. Dave survived these years of abuse by finding ways to feed himself, including stealing from other students and stealing from a local grocery store. Although Dave enjoyed school, many of his teachers saw...
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