{"id":18854,"date":"2020-11-20T01:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T05:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=18854"},"modified":"2020-11-29T09:40:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T13:40:12","slug":"book-about-an-abused-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called ‘It’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Are you looking for a famous book about an abused boy? Did you know that the Dave Pelzer’s book was a true story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Child Called \u201cIt\u201d <\/em>is author Dave Pelzer\u2019s autobiographical account of the abuse he endured at his mother\u2019s hands from ages 4 to 12 and it is likely the most famous book about an abused boy. His experience was one of the worst cases of child abuse reported in California history at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about this book about an abused boy and the story he shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Dave Pelzer’s Book About an Abused Boy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The book about an abused boy is the first in a trilogy\u2014the first chronicling the childhood abuse, the second his teenage years in foster care, and the third his rehabilitation in adulthood. The books showcase Pelzer\u2019s resilience and determination in the face of horrific abuse and adversity.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pelzer wrote this book using the perspective, language, and tone he had as a child, without any adult insight or speculation about the reasons for his mother\u2019s behavior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Story Starts With How He’s Saved<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In March 1973, David is a fifth-grader in Daly City, California, just outside of San Francisco. When David arrives at school, he goes through a familiar routine with the school nurse: David removes his tattered clothes and the nurse checks his body for new bruises and scars. This book about an abused boy starts with the end of the abuse, when he is finally saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David claims he ran into a door, but the nurse has heard all his cover-ups before and David eventually admits that his mother inflicted them. Still, David\u2019s terrified his alcoholic mother will find out that he revealed the truth and beat him for it, like she did when the principal called the year prior to ask about David\u2019s bruises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today the principal, two of David\u2019s teachers, the school nurse, and a police officer have assembled, and David fears he\u2019s in trouble because he regularly steals food from his classmates\u2019 lunches. They assure David he\u2019s not in trouble and ask about his mother. The nurse asks David to show the others the scar on his stomach from when his mother stabbed him, and David explains that Mother punishes him because he\u2019s bad.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school staff members are jeopardizing their jobs to save David. (Shortform note: The first child abuse reporting laws were enacted in the 1960s<\/a>, but they pertained to doctors. By 1974\u2014the year after David was taken out of Mother\u2019s custody\u2014only 24 states mandated teachers and 34 states mandated nurses to report suspected abuse.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police officer takes a terrified David to the police station. The officer calls David\u2019s mother to tell her that David is now in the custody of the San Mateo Juvenile Department.<\/strong> David is still apprehensive and thinks he\u2019s going to jail, but the officer reassures him that not only is David not in trouble, he\u2019s finally free. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you looking for a famous book about an abused boy? Did you know that the Dave Pelzer’s book was a true story? A Child Called \u201cIt\u201d is author Dave Pelzer\u2019s autobiographical account of the abuse he endured at his mother\u2019s hands from ages 4 to 12 and it is likely the most famous book about an abused boy. His experience was one of the worst cases of child abuse reported in California history at the time.  Read more about this book about an abused boy and the story he shares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,13],"tags":[157],"class_list":["post-18854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-parenting","tag-a-child-called-it","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nBook About An Abused Boy: A Child Called 'It' - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Child Called "It" is the famous book about an abused boy. The boy is the author David Pelzer, who was abused by his mother. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called 'It'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Child Called "It" is the famous book about an abused boy. The boy is the author David Pelzer, who was abused by his mother. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-20T05:25:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-29T13:40:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"763\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called ‘It’\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-20T05:25:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-29T13:40:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/\"},\"wordCount\":517,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"A Child Called 'It'\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Books\",\"Parenting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/\",\"name\":\"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called 'It' - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-20T05:25:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-29T13:40:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"A Child Called \\\"It\\\" is the famous book about an abused boy. The boy is the author David Pelzer, who was abused by his mother. Read more.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg\",\"width\":763,\"height\":512},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called ‘It’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\",\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rina Shah\"},\"description\":\"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called 'It' - Shortform Books","description":"A Child Called \"It\" is the famous book about an abused boy. The boy is the author David Pelzer, who was abused by his mother. Read more.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called 'It'","og_description":"A Child Called \"It\" is the famous book about an abused boy. The boy is the author David Pelzer, who was abused by his mother. Read more.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2020-11-20T05:25:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-29T13:40:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":763,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rina Shah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rina Shah","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/"},"author":{"name":"Rina Shah","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287"},"headline":"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called ‘It’","datePublished":"2020-11-20T05:25:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-29T13:40:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/"},"wordCount":517,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg","keywords":["A Child Called 'It'"],"articleSection":["Books","Parenting"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/","name":"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called 'It' - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg","datePublished":"2020-11-20T05:25:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-29T13:40:12+00:00","description":"A Child Called \"It\" is the famous book about an abused boy. The boy is the author David Pelzer, who was abused by his mother. Read more.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg","width":763,"height":512},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/book-about-an-abused-boy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Book About An Abused Boy: A Child Called ‘It’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287","name":"Rina Shah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rina Shah"},"description":"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/educated-abuse-survivor.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18854"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19110,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18854\/revisions\/19110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}