PDF Summary:A Child Called 'It', by Dave Pelzer
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All the alarming statistics about child abuse and neglect—millions of cases reported each year, killing nearly five children each day—don’t begin to illustrate how victims experience abuse. In A Child Called 'It', author Dave Pelzer provides a rare and grisly glimpse into his experience of severe physical and psychological abuse at his mother’s hands.
In one of the worst child abuse cases reported in California’s history at the time, Pelzer was starved, burned on the stove, regularly locked in the bathroom with a noxious mixture of ammonia and Clorox, and forbidden from speaking to or looking at any of his family members. Through it all, Pelzer maintained an indomitable will to survive that’s a testament to the strength of the human spirit even under the bleakest circumstances.
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- Forbidding David from looking at or talking to anyone
- Forcing David to stand in the garage each night while his family eats dinner
- Forbidding David from playing or watching TV with his brothers
- Never using David’s name, calling him only “the Boy” and “It”
- Banishing David to sleep on an old army cot in the cold garage
Mother Stabs David
As time goes on, the abuse intensifies.
One night when David is 10, Mother is giving David his list of chores for the evening, holding a knife and threatening to kill him if he doesn’t finish them within the time limits she gives. As usual, Mother is drunk. Mother begins to sway and loses her balance, and a moment later, the knife in her hand strikes David in the stomach.
David blacks out. When he comes to, Mother is dressing his wound. Neither she nor Father takes David to the hospital, and Father’s failure to act devastates David.
Mother still makes David wash the dishes, though she shows some warmth and caretaking as the night goes on: She allows David to play outside with his brothers, calls him by his name, and checks on him through the night.
However, when David wakes up the next morning, it’s business as usual. Within a few days, the wound becomes infected and David must resort to using a dirty rag and a few drops of water to clean it himself. David renews the vow he made to himself the night Mother burned him, to survive through self-reliance and strength of spirit.
Father Doesn’t Protect David From the Abuse
For a while, David considers Father his protector because Mother limits her abuse when Father is home. But as time goes on, Father spends more time at work or at bars to avoid being home, and eventually, his presence no longer deters Mother’s abuse.
Around the time David enters fourth grade, Mother’s abuse includes:
- Starving David for 10 days
- Locking David in the bathroom with a bucket full of a noxious mixture of ammonia and Clorox (David calls this the gas chamber)
- Forcing David to offer to mow neighbors’ lawns for a fee—which she’ll pocket—setting an unrealistically high earnings quota, and beating David when he can’t reach it
- Forcing him to lie for hours in a cold bath with his head under water, leaving only his nostrils above water to breathe
At one point, Mother forbids Father from seeing David, and David loses all hope of a better life. He stops praying to God and stops fantasizing that some superhero will rescue him.
David Hits Rock Bottom
One day, out of the blue, Mother apologizes to David and tries to make amends. He spends two blissful days believing her charade, but it comes to a crashing halt when a social worker visits the house to ask David about his relationship with Mother; David immediately realizes Mother’s gestures were hollow, and the abuse continues. He’s crushed, but, at the very least, he’s grateful to have had two good days.
After the social worker’s visit, David loses faith in God and resigns himself to simply surviving each day.He stops finding escape through his imagination, and he comes to hate everyone around him because no one has stepped in to save him.
David hates his Father and brothers for going along with Mother’s abuse, but most of all he hates himself because he feels responsible for allowing the abuse to continue for so long. David is convinced that he’s weak and that he deserves his mistreatment.
David sinks so low that he wishes he were dead. He assumes Mother’s torture will ultimately kill him, so he decides to provoke her. For a short period, David rebels—doing his chores sloppily and disobeying Mother in every way he can—until she locks him in the gas chamber longer than ever before and tries to dunk his face into the bucket of chemicals. After that, David returns to submission.
Around this time, Mother and Father’s marriage reaches a breaking point. Their relationship has been disintegrating for years, and Father finally moves out a few days after Christmas. David is resentful, jealous, and, most of all, scared of what Mother will do to him now that Father’s gone. David is sure Mother will kill him soon, and he merely hopes she’ll do it quickly.
David’s Rescue
It’s March 1973 and David is a fifth-grader in Daly City, California, just outside San Francisco. When he arrives at school, the nurse does her regular inventory of David’s new bruises and scars. David attempts to give one of the explanations Mother told him—that he ran into a door—but the nurse knows better and eventually David admits that the marks are from Mother.
Shortly after, David’s called into the office to meet with the nurse, two of his teachers, the principal, and a police officer. The nurse asks David to show the scar on his stomach from when his mother stabbed him.
The officer takes David to the police station, where he calls David’s mother to tell her that David is now in the custody of the San Mateo Juvenile Department. David is terrified, but the officer reassures David that he’s finally free.
As an adult, David attributes his survival to the fact that he took control of himself and his circumstances any way he could.He also credits his horrific experiences for his strength, adaptability, intrinsic motivation, and unique perspective on life.
After he escapes, David vows to make the most of his life by creating success and pushing himself to be the best person he can be. He finds community and a sense of purpose as a member of the United States Air Force, and he builds a loving relationship with his own son.
(Shortform note: David’s parents faced no charges after he was removed from their custody. His father died in 1980 and his mother in 1992.)
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PDF Summary Introduction
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PDF Summary Chapter 1: David Is Saved
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The police officer takes a terrified David to the police station. The officer calls David’s mother to tell her that David is now in the custody of the San Mateo Juvenile Department. David is still apprehensive and thinks he’s going to jail, but the officer reassures him that not only is David not in trouble, he’s finally free.
(Shortform note: Pelzer doesn’t say what specific incident precipitated his removal from his home or why it didn’t happen sooner if the school nurse was aware of his abuse. After he’s taken from his mother’s custody, he enters the foster care system, which he chronicles in his second book, The Lost Boy.)
PDF Summary Chapter 2: Before the Abuse
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A Few Odd Behaviors Hid Amongst the Happy Memories
David’s memories of his happy early years also include hints of his mother’s unusual behaviors.
In one instance, when David is about five years old, he notices that Mother seems unlike herself. She claims to be sick, but after dinner hurriedly paints the garage steps and then covers them with rubber mats before the paint has dried, making a mess of the wet paint in the process.
Afterward, as she lies exhausted on the couch, David asks her why she didn’t wait until the paint dried to attach the mats. She simply replies that she’d wanted to surprise David’s father.
In another instance, Mother stands crying as David and his brothers revel in their gifts on Christmas morning. When David asks why she’s crying, Mother says they’re tears of joy for having a “real family.” This is a brief detail, but it begs a question about whether her own family background offers any clues for the abusive behavior that later surfaces.
(Shortform note: As adults, David and his brother Richard—who’s given the pseudonym Russell in the book—have [attributed Mother’s...
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Learn more about our summaries →PDF Summary Chapter 3: The Change
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Mother Dislocates David’s Arm
One day, while Father is at work, David hears Mother storming toward the room where he and his brothers are playing. Mother’s drunk, and she begins hitting David for no apparent reason.
Mother punches David and pushes his hands away as he tries to use them to cover his face. David puts his left arm up over his face and Mother grabs it as she loses her balance and stumbles back a step. Suddenly they hear a pop. Mother acts like nothing has happened and walks away.
David’s arm is limp. After dinner, Mother sends him to bed and tells him to sleep on the top bunk, although he usually sleeps on the bottom. She wakes him in the middle of the night and tells him he fell out of the top bunk and hurt his arm. Acting worried, Mother drives David to the hospital, where David recounts the bunk bed story to a skeptical doctor. David is too afraid to reveal the truth.
Mother Destroys David’s Happy Escapes
Mother’s terrorizing gradually encroaches on every part of life where David previously found joy.
One example is school, which David considers a retreat from his hell at home. One day, Mother berates and beats David for supposedly...
PDF Summary Chapter 4: Mother Weaponizes Food
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Mother has to go to the school to meet with the principal. Surprisingly, she comes home elated: She brags to David that she convinced the principal that David makes up stories and even hurts himself to get attention. Mother told the principal that the school staff shouldn’t believe any of David’s tall tales about being hurt or hungry.
David is devastated. First, even if he musters the courage to ask for help from anyone at school, now no one will believe him. Additionally, the meeting has bolstered Mother’s confidence and David fears that it will make her more brazen and brutal.
Third Grade
By third grade, Mother doesn’t let David ride to school with his brothers. Instead, after David finishes his chores, he has to run to school, leaving him no time to steal his classmates’ food.
School is no longer a refuge for David. His classmates tease him for stealing food and for wearing tattered, smelly clothes. David’s ostracized both at home and at school, and he feels completely alone; building on the vow he made after the stove incident, David reminds himself only he can ensure his survival.
Since David’s classmates are already aware of his food-stealing schemes,...
PDF Summary Chapter 5: Mother Stabs David
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David is gobsmacked. He finds Father and tells him what happened, certain that Father will take care of him. David still considers Father his hero, despite years of passively allowing his abuse.
But Father merely asks why Mother stabbed David and urges him to get back to his chores before Mother finds him and gets angry.As a supposed consolation, Father promises not to tell Mother that David has told him about the stabbing. David’s faith and respect for his father shatter.
One Night of Caretaking
David manages to do the dishes, finding ways to maneuver that minimize the shooting pain he feels. At first, Mother shows less hostility than usual but stops short of compassion as she nurses David. For example:
- Mother gingerly removes his blood-stained shirt and puts him in a fresh one. She doesn’t lash out when David leans against her in physical weakness, but she also offers no comfort.
- Mother gives David a glass of water, but says she can’t feed him for another few hours. Again, her tone is matter-of-fact and she gives David no sympathy or embrace.
But then **Mother surprises David by telling him he can play outside with his brothers. Mother even...
PDF Summary Chapter 6: Mother Is Cruelest When Father’s Away
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After about half an hour in the “gas chamber,” Mother opens the door. David still ends up coughing up blood, but he’s found a way to survive another torturous game, which Mother repeats about once a week.
Lawn-Mowing Venture
The summer before David enters fourth grade, Mother sends him around the neighborhood to offer lawn mowing services for a fee, which she’ll pocket. Mother sets an unrealistically high quota, and when David can’t reach it, she beats him.
Once, in desperation to meet the quota, David steals money from a young neighbor girl. But Mother quickly finds out, returns the money, and beats David.
In another instance, David’s worn clothes and emaciated body elicit a neighbor woman’s pity and she gives him a brown bag lunch. David plans to hide the food before returning to Mother’s house (he never refers to it as his house) but she drives by and catches him with it. Mother assumes David has stolen the food and beats him.
Ice Baths
The day Mother catches David with the bagged lunch, she introduces a new form of abuse.
Mother brings David into the bathroom, and he assumes he’s walking into another gas chamber session. But then **Mother fills the...
PDF Summary Chapter 7: David Hits Rock Bottom
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Second, David hates his brothers—except his baby brother Kevin—who have been so brainwashed by their Mother that they go along with treating David as the family slave.In one instance, his brothers even take turns physically attacking David.
(Shortform note: David’s younger brother Richard released a book, A Brother’s Journey, after this book was published. In it, Richard describes how he went from harassing David to becoming the new target of Mother’s abuse after David was taken out of Mother’s custody.)
Finally, David hates himself most of all and feels responsible for allowing the abuse to continue for so long. David is convinced that he’s weak and that he deserves his mistreatment—in no small part because Mother often forced him to repeat “I hate myself.” (Shortform note: Our summary of The Body Keeps the Score also explains that trauma survivors are often more haunted by unwarranted shame for their own actions or inactions than by their abusers’ actions.)
School Is No Refuge
By fifth grade, school isn’t the escape it used to be for David.
David’s poor sleep and constant hunger make it...
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PDF Summary Epilogue
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As an adult, David found a community and a feeling of purpose as a member of the United States Air Force. Later, he had his own son, Stephen, and fostered a loving relationship with him in spite of his dysfunctional relationship with his own parents.
David still returns to the Russian River whenever he can—and now he brings Stephen so they can enjoy the area’s beauty and serenity together.
PDF Summary Afterword: A Survivor’s Perspective on Child Abuse
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These people are:
- Steven E. Ziegler, David’s fifth-grade homeroom teacher
- Valerie Bivens, a social worker for California’s Child Protective Services
- Glenn A. Goldberg, former executive director of the California Consortium for the Prevention of Child Abuse
Their reactions to this book include a few key points:
- During the period of David’s abuse, in the early 1970s, there was little public awareness about the issue of child abuse and few protections for its victims .
- Outsiders can’t understand the reality and intensity of what child abuse victims endure, but this book offers a glimpse of the experience.
- Unlike David, many child abuse victims never speak out, instead internalizing their pain in self-hatred or lashing out at others.
- On a broad scale, child abuse and neglect had gotten dramatically worse in the decade before this book was published (in 1993).
Shortform Note
While this book inspired innumerable child abuse survivors, many others have questioned Pelzer’s motivation and truthfulness.
First, critics claim Pelzer exploited his...