By Dave Pelzer ~ Release Date: SEPT. 1, 1995

A Child Called “It” is the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history.

A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer is a non-fiction book that’s one hundred fifty-three pages long and every page illustrates Dave’s life story from ages four to twelve and how he dealt with the abuse of his alcohol mother who no longer saw him as her son or a boy, but saw him as a slave and an “it.” A mother who played unpredictable and excruciating games that would leave him nearly dead. He soon learned that to survive he had to learn how to play his mother’s games. Dave’s bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and filthy. When his mother allowed him the privilege of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scrapes. The outside world had no knowledge of his living nightmare. He had no one to turn to, but his dreams that would keep him alive by helping him escape to a world where someone was taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son. A Child Called “It”, is an extraordinary book that’s structured by Dave Pelzer to take you through the struggles he had to face and what he had to do to survive. Through every struggle you feel Dave’s pain, his loneliness and his willpower to survive. Dave uses descriptive words to illustrate and help you imagine his world through his words. For example, he uses the following sentence “Mother would simply grab me and smash my face against the mirror, smearing my tear-streaked face on the slick, reflective glass.”, to describe an abusive moment in which his mother smudged his crying face on the mirror. A Child Called “It”, illustrates some similar concepts from the movie Room, which is about a young woman named Joy Newsome who has been held captive for seven years and who has a five year old son named Jack who was born in captivity in a shed they call Room. This movie shares the emotions of captivity and loneliness that Dave’s story shares. Both pieces illustrate the life of helpless boys who only want to be free and live a happy life. They also share a similarity in scenery since Dave slept in the basement and Jack slept in a shed which imprisoned them to room filled with pain.

I would consider A Child Called “It” American literature because the author Dave Pelzer is an American who was born in Daly City, California, which is also the setting of this story. Also mentioned in the back of the book is that in 1993 Dave was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans and in 1994 was the only American to be honored as one of The Outstanding Young Persons of the World. I also believe it should be considered American literature because Dave talks about his experience with child abuse which is an issue still happening and talked about in America and all over the world. I’ve recently read an article called “Why child welfare experts fear a spike of abuse during COVID-19”, which talked about how in the last month Dr. Jamye Coffman saw seven children and infants who had been severely abused that they had to be hospitalized at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth, Texas. It also explains how the hospital in most cases sees fewer than 10 cases of fatal child abuse in a year, but that week, two died from their injuries. It explains how the pandemic could play a role in this situation because we are all unsure of how long this pandemic will last, and that uncertainty can cause anxiety, tension and irritability for children and caregivers. It also shares that “when life is disrupted by a natural disaster, research has shown that incidents of abuse have increased, and children in dangerous situations can fall through the cracks in the system.” That may be happening now, since before the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers at schools would recognize signs of abuse on the children and would report it, but because of social distancing that is no longer possible. This article demonstrates how child abuse is still a recurring event happening in today’s time and how their many more stories out their like Dave’s that aren’t being shared or helped. Dave described his school as his only hope of escape, which is as mentioned above hard to attain during these times of quarantine. A Child Called “It” can be related to the text “Bookstore At the End of America”, that we’ve read in class because Molly provided books so that the people could escape from their reality and the school provided an escape for Dave to have some time away from the abuse of his mother. These pieces are different in the sense that “Bookstore At the End of America”, is a fictional text and A Child Called “It” is a non-fictional story, but that doesn’t take away the message that everybody needs some type of distraction that can help minimize the worry. I also would have wished all that love and support that Molly gave to her daughter Phoebe; Dave’s mother would have given him.

A captivating story of love, pain and disbelieve. This compelling story will awaken us to the truth about child abuse and the ability and responsibility we all have to make a difference.

How serious the coronavirus got really took me by surprise since everything seemed like it was moving so fast. First, we were on spring break, and then that got extended and then we received an email about the college shutting down and moving their classes online. I’ve always been a face to face person so it took some time for me to adjust to the new online setting and especially because it seemed like I was having to do more work than what I actually did when I attended lectures. But I knew it was still very important for me to finish the semester strong, so I knew I had to develop good time management skills, if I wanted to finish my assignments on time, which have been going pretty good so far. I began feeling a little sad as the month of April approached because I realized the situation wouldn’t be changing anytime soon and I had big expectations on celebrating my birthday which was on April 5, with my family and friends. But with quarantine I knew that wouldn’t be possible, still my family and friends did all they could to show their love towards me by bringing me flowers and chocolates, which made me feel really happy and loved and grateful to have such loving people around me specially during these times. Then Easter rolled by and it was a very special Easter for my family and me. We usually just go our separate ways since my sisters have husbands and they have to split up their time to be able to spend it with both families, but this time we got to celebrate the entire day all of us together at my sisters house. By still following the rules we got to spend time together and hide eggs for the kids and watch how happy they were when they would find each egg. I thought it was still very important for us to celebrate Easter because the kids don’t really comprehend what is happening and they still see normality in the world, so in their minds there is no reason not to celebrate Easter. Honestly, I’ve just been taking day by day as it comes and just been hoping this situation gets solved soon. I hope every single one of you guys is doing good and staying safe, and don’t forget that theirs resources and people you can call, that can help you if your feeling scarred or anxious during these times, don’t be afraid to use any of those resources that can help you better your health.

“It is so important for them to know that I’m not a bad boy. I want so much to be liked, to be loved”

By: Dave Pelzer

These books go through the life of Dave Pelzer a child who experienced child abuse by his mother.

• A Child Called “It”
• The Lost Boy
• A Man Named Dave

In the first chapter of “Oryx and Crake” Jimmy would refer to the children as Children of Crake and in the section called Flotsam from chapter one is when we first read about the children by the following sentence “On the white beach, ground-up coral and broken bones, a group of the children are walking.” When I first read this, I imagined the kids as real children whom Jimmy was looking after. I never thought he was imagining them because he always talked about how they would catch fishes for him and how he would tell them stories about Crake and Oryx and other stories. He would talk about them in a present way which made me think they were really with him and not just in his head. As I read further and further into the story in the section called Paradice from chapter twelve Jimmy explains his first encounter with the Crakers. This all starts when Jimmy is offered a job by Crake. So, Jimmy starts working for Crake at the Paradice compound where Crake focuses on experiments. Crakes focus and life’s work was the Crakers. Jimmy’s first view of the Crakers was through a large picture window, which was a one-way mirror. The mirror showed a large central space filled with trees and plants, above them a blue sky. But it wasn’t what it seemed as the following sentence explains, “(Not really a blue sky, only the curved ceiling of the bubble-dome, with a clever projection device that simulated dawn, sunlight, evening, night. There was a fake moon that went through its phases, he discovered later. There was fake rain.)” Jimmy goes on to explain how the Crakers were naked but not self-conscious. Jimmy couldn’t believe how beautiful they were, “Black, yellow, white, brown, all available skin colours.” Is how Jimmy described them and when I first read this I was like omg so they’re not “real” children maybe their robots I thought, I was shocked, but really interested on why they had different skin colors. The Crakers were programmed to drop dead at age thirty, without getting sick or from being old age, no anxieties. Crake described the Crakers as floor models because they represented the art of the possible by being able to be customize to whatever features the buyers wanted. I found the Crakers to be really fascinating specially going from thinking they were “real” human children to finding out they had different skin colors, no real emotion, were vegan, could be changed to have specific features and were very beautiful in Jimmy’s opinion.

In class we’ve read the text called “The Bookstore at the End of America” by Charlie Jane Anders. This was a story about a woman named Molly who’s the owner of a bookstore called “the First and Last Page.” This bookstore is the border between America and California. It separates these both countries because in the setting of this story both countries dislike each other but both still have the need for books. The bookstore is located on top of a hill, it has two walkways lined with blank slates and grass and has two identical signs welcoming customers and it’s a blue colored building shaped like an old-fashioned barn with a slanted tiled roof and generous rain gutters. Molly just wanted a place where she could bring literature and a little peace to the chaos. In the story it shares how sometimes people asked her why she didn’t just create one entrance and force the people from America to talk to the Californians, and vice versa, “maybe expose one side or the other to some books that might challenge their worldview just a little.” Molly would reply by saying she had a business to run, and if she managed to keep everyone reading, then that was enough.” The theme stated throughout this story is that reading can be used as a tool to fight division among different groups. A quote from the story that for me truly resonated with the theme was the following, “Everybody needs books, Molly figured. No matter where they live, how they love, what they believe, whom they want to kill. We all want books.” Another example showed in the story that helped make the connection about how the same taste in literature can help demonstrate the similarities groups have in character and interests. In the story Molly describes a scenario that happened at the bookstore she told the story of Sander a Canadian and Teri an American, Sander went looking for the book called “Souls on the Land,” which Teri had bought, which shows how they disliked each other but still had the need for the same book. The story also mentioned how reading could become a refuge in which you could escape to and get away from real life situations. The following quote from the story shares how actual refugees saw the bookstore, “Molly’s store because books meant civilization, or maybe the store’s name seemed to promise a kind of safe passage: the first page leading gracefully to the last.” Molly would help refugees move from America to California and would give them a free book that would keep them company on their journey. I really enjoyed this story because it made me draw conclusions on how literature can be more than just reading but it could help form connection with people that may seem different to us.

I’m reading chapter seventeen in The American Yawp U.S. History textbook for my HIST-1302 U.S. History since 1865 class. I’m reading this chapter specifically because it has to do with my assessment #2 homework which is a five-question quiz over the chapter.