Results 1 to 13 of 13

Thread: A Child Called It

  1. #1
    Banned
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Illinois
    Posts
    5,046
    Blog Entries
    16

    A Child Called It

    I've started student teaching at a high school, and am really surprised at how many kids are reading this. Not only reading it, but at the encouragement of teachers.

    Now, if it gets kids reading, fine. I'm for that no matter the material (unless it is hate-filled or something along those lines). But it seems like an awfully brutal book to encourage kids to read. I really don't get this country (USA) when it comes to what is and is not appropriate. It's perfectly fine for a kids to read A Child Called It, but God forbid they read what I find to be an excellent young adult novel, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, because it contains . . . *queue ominous music* . . . masturbation!

    I haven't read A Child Called It, and I have no desire to. I've read about the book, and don't want to read what is essentially an account of torture with no discernible redemption. I may read it, just so I can see what the big deal is about first hand, but I'm currently looking into young adult novels with a little more depth, like The Giver.

    Your thoughts?

  2. #2
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Posts
    30
    Quote Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandi View Post
    I haven't read A Child Called It, and I have no desire to. I've read about the book, and don't want to read what is essentially an account of torture with no discernible redemption. I may read it, just so I can see what the big deal is about first hand, but I'm currently looking into young adult novels with a little more depth, like The Giver.

    Your thoughts?
    First off, if you haven't read the book, how can you judge it? Secondly, you do realize that this is a nonfiction book right? That the author really did go through all of this torture? It's not something he made up to try to make the New York Times Bestseller list. I realize that objectively speaking this doesn't make any difference in terms of literary quality, but it still seems kind of harsh to just dismiss someone else's suffering out of hand just because the author isn't "deep" enough.

  3. #3
    Banned
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Illinois
    Posts
    5,046
    Blog Entries
    16
    I didn't judge the book on its literary merits, just explained why I didn't want to read it. I never claimed it was a bad or poorly written book. The only assumption I made was on the story, and if I am mistaken on that, I apologize. If my impressions of what the book is are off-base, let me know. Maybe I will be more eager to read it. And, honestly, I don't see how it being a true story (which, from other things I've read, is suspect, in terms of how bad the author's abuse really was) makes it that much more relevant.

    This thread is more about what kids are encouraged to read in school, and what they aren't encouraged to read, and why (at least, that's what I intended it to be about, but wherever the discussion veers if fine by me) . I think it's backwards. Violence seems to be okay, while sex (a natural human act) is seen as obscene.

  4. #4
    Registered User Delta40's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Fremantle Western Australia
    Posts
    9,902
    Blog Entries
    62
    My daughter has the book and I have absolutely no interest in reading a book (I don't care that it might be true or not!) of a tortured, tormented kid. The only observation I would make is that such literature may assist a young persons ability to empathise - but even that is debatable.
    Before sunlight can shine through a window, the blinds must be raised - American Proverb

  5. #5
    Banned
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Illinois
    Posts
    5,046
    Blog Entries
    16
    Well, it seems like a lot of boys like it. I can't help but wonder, are they empathizing, or just fascinated with the violence?

  6. #6
    Registered User Delta40's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Fremantle Western Australia
    Posts
    9,902
    Blog Entries
    62
    Quote Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandi View Post
    Well, it seems like a lot of boys like it. I can't help but wonder, are they empathizing, or just fascinated with the violence?
    Spoke to my daughter - she thinks it's due to a fascination for violence! It's the equivalent of Cannibal Holocaust. I myself have no other opinion. I do think that to discuss it at length - one would need to read the book.
    Before sunlight can shine through a window, the blinds must be raised - American Proverb

  7. #7
    Registered User Delta40's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    Fremantle Western Australia
    Posts
    9,902
    Blog Entries
    62
    Quote Originally Posted by varnish7 View Post
    First off, if you haven't read the book, how can you judge it? Secondly, you do realize that this is a nonfiction book right? That the author really did go through all of this torture? It's not something he made up to try to make the New York Times Bestseller list. I realize that objectively speaking this doesn't make any difference in terms of literary quality, but it still seems kind of harsh to just dismiss someone else's suffering out of hand just because the author isn't "deep" enough.

    After talking to my daughter and her firm belief that it is not an authentic account, please read the following review:



    A CHILD CALLED "IT"

    "As a child, Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother, a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left one of her sons nearly dead. She no longer considered him a son, but a slave, no longer a boy, but an "it". The outside world knew nothing of the nightmare played out behind closed doors."
    Mail on Sunday


    Alarm bells started to ring when I began to read this book, knowing in advance that what the story covers is disturbing and details the life between the ages of 4 and 12 of Dave Pelzer. I had vague ideas about the outline of the story and a little knowledge of what to expect, although the alarm bells for me began right at the beginning of the book when he acknowledges that the book is heavily edited by Marsha Donohoe, an editor by profession, in an attempt to make the story seem as if it were told by a child. Surely a story of what purports to be "one of the most disturbing child abuse cases in the history of California" should have stood its' ground without this treatment, and I suspected that rather than wanting to make the book more appealing, what the editor was in fact trying to achieve and succeeded in was selling a shocking story big time. Somehow a story of this magnitude doesn't have the same impact when written by an unknown adult.
    The book was first published in the UK by Orion Media in the year 2000, and has subsequently been published in 33 different languages. The book has made money. It's a best seller, although the alarm bells that started to ring when I began my journey through the book, continued to such an extent that I am drawn towards writing what I think of a bestseller nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

    Writing style and character development.
    From the initial pages of the book, the writing style of this author or in fact the woman that was claimed to have edited it (and who incidentally was romantically involved with Dave Pelzer at the time), seemed at best amateur, although as stated, it was supposed to be written as if being the thoughts of the child. What began to worry me within the pages of the book was that whilst the story was about a middle class family in California in the 1970's, with five sons, there was little mention of Dave's father or his brothers. This struck me as bizarre since I grew up in a family of similar size, and although had issues with my mother, would still recall interactions between myself and my sisters in memories, whilst Dave did not. It was almost as if they were shadows on the wall, rather than participants in his childhood, and the picture that the author was painting was almost like an oil painting of scenery with no background.

    For what it's worth, the story begins on an optimistic note that actually acts as a safety barrier for the chapters that follow, knowing all the way through the book that there will be a conclusion that is at least happier than the road that takes you through this strange surreal explanation of a childhood that has gained such notoriety worldwide. The scenario set in the second chapter recalls how Dave saw his family life in the 1960's, and the happiness that filled their home. His father, Stephen, was a fire fighter on shift work, and the stability of family life something that even an abused child can look back on and remember as good times. This rings alarm bells as well, because had a child suffered the amount of abuse described in the chapters that followed, I doubt that their memory would go back as far as the ages that it is supposed to. Perhaps this description of their lives is the best that the writer could muster, and certainly, I would have difficulties myself in trying to describe my home life at the tender age of 4 or 5 with any accuracy. It doesn't ring true and seems almost like Dave is purposely remembering selectively the things that he choses to. The problem with selective memory is that it really does not make your written work believable.
    In the chapters that follow, the reader is expected to believe that this perfect "role model" mother turned into a monster that chose to abuse one of her sons and how the story fails to convince is in that it tells one story from one angle, forgetting all other perspectives, puts aside logical thinking and reason, and expects the reader to accept without question that what is being said is true. The torture that the child is put through in the book makes very little sense to me. Yes, of course, a mother can favour one child over the others, and this often happens, though can a mother also single out one child to abuse, and be a loving mother to her other children and to the outside world ? Personally, I have my doubts. There are many instances within the book that are shocking, so shocking that several times, I had to distance myself from the story in order to gain perspective, because what I was reading made no sense. There are contradictions galore throughout the story, such as the descriptions of his mothers' obsession to starve the child, weighed against his own description in a miserable and almost "sorry for myself" description of his lunch pail always having the same contents.

    So many discrepancies made me wonder about the truth that lies behind the words. Yes, the child was taken into care at the age of 12, but we are lead to believe that for the last 4 to 5 years of the lads' life with his family that he was starved, tortured in despicable ways, unfed, dressed in the same clothes over a period of 12 months at a time, and that no one noticed. The descriptions are graphically disturbing, although without the background on the canvas, or a picture of family life, friends, siblings, or even a hint at emotion towards his father, the words were hollow, and only shocked me from lack of logic and explanation. It struck me that the whole book is like a testament of guilt thrown towards a woman that for some reason failed, although everyone is to assume her guilt without any proof or hard evidence that the story is true.
    The book made me research, made me ask questions to fill in the gaps that were so glaringly obvious and it seems that the story was only published after the death of his mother in January 1992, by which time his father had also died. I also questioned why members of the family had never contested the contents of the book, although here found that many had dismissed it as folly and that his own Grandmother (accused of abuse of his mother and one of the weak arguments for why Dave's mother became abusive in the first place) stated that Dave's book belongs in the fiction section.

    It is weak throughout all of its' chapters. No teachers noticed. No neighbours complained and what really did make me angry about the writing of this book was that it insults the reader's intelligence and integrity by its' lack of substantiation. Sure, the child was abused. Of that there is no doubt, as he was taken into care at the age of 12, though if the authorities believed Dave's version of events, would they have left four other young children in the care of such an "unfit" mother ? I think not.
    Taken a step further, none of his brothers comment upon the contents of the book, and although there is a small chapter where quotes were made by Dave's teacher at the end of this book, the teacher stays "neutral" and says that the story is Dave's to tell, and that back in those days very little was known about the existence of child abuse. This was a retrospective comment made on an event that was scaled as enormously important, though the response given by the teacher who had been contacted by the editor of this book was scathingly careful to say the least.

    I would suspect that the brothers of Dave are now married and moved on, and even their names have been changed within the characterizations in the book in an attempt to protect them from scandal. I honestly feel that the publishers knew that no-one would contest the story written by Dave, and would certainly have felt easier in their sleep in the wake of a book written by Dave's brother, Richard, who seemingly jumped on the same bandwagon in an attempt to find a moments' glory in the shadow of his famous brother. His book entitled "A Brother's Journey" relates to the treatment he received at the hands of his mother, when Dave had been taken into care, and he would certainly not contest the contents of this book on the grounds that it may put his own efforts in jeopardy.
    All the way through this disturbing read, there are constant contradictions, and I believe "selected" memories, put together in an attempt to shock, though to what purpose ? In some respects, if Dave were as badly abused as he says he was, perhaps the book was his way of coming to terms with what had happened, though personally I doubt it. The book has made the man rich, and the two books that followed and made the trilogy of "A Boy Called It", "The Lost Boy", and "A Man Named Dave" seem too commercially contrived as a money spinner to have served any useful purpose in the way that child abuse is dealt with, and I can only believe that the bitterness and pain shown as incomplete pictures within this book, owe their incompleteness to the perceptions of a mind tortured by memories that somehow still do not make sufficient sense to complete the picture, even to him.

    A week after having read this book, the disturbing images that it produced in my mind are still there, but what remains within my thoughts through the writing Dave Pelzer is how cleverly people can manipulate circumstance for gain.
    Readability : Poor and unconvincing.
    Buy it : No, borrow it, but read with an open mind.
    Not suitable material for young children.
    Before sunlight can shine through a window, the blinds must be raised - American Proverb

  8. #8
    Banned
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Illinois
    Posts
    5,046
    Blog Entries
    16
    Good review.

  9. #9
    This book is a very good book. It is a message to other like David to speak out and it is also his story. There are somethings i was confused about but all in all it was a great book.

  10. #10
    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    trapped in a prologue.
    Posts
    2,383
    Blog Entries
    7
    If it encourages others to speak out about similar situations, to seek help needed, then that's great. However, from what I know of the book (I am in the similar situation of hearing a lot about it but not having read it), there is also a danger to this book. If the book is fictionalized to an extent (as has been claimed) or is just so narrow focused that it does not touch on essential aspects of his life pertaining to the situation, then especially for younger readers who are not always in the questioning frame of mind - the "message" becomes so blurred.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

  11. #11
    BadWoolf JuniperWoolf's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    The North
    Posts
    4,433
    Blog Entries
    28
    I read it when I was a kid and I thought it was crap. Ronald Reagan strongly advocated it, and you can tell.
    __________________
    "Personal note: When I was a little kid my mother told me not to stare into the sun. So once when I was six, I did. At first the brightness was overwhelming, but I had seen that before. I kept looking, forcing myself not to blink, and then the brightness began to dissolve. My pupils shrunk to pinholes and everything came into focus and for a moment I understood. The doctors didn't know if my eyes would ever heal."
    -Pi


  12. #12
    Skol'er of Thinkery The Comedian's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    where the cold wind blows
    Posts
    3,919
    Blog Entries
    81
    What grade-level(s) are you teaching? I just finished reading The Giver and really enjoyed it. But I think the story itself might be better suited to Jr. high students. Still. . . . you could use The Giver as a gateway novel to Plato's allegory of the cave or to some other utopian/distopian novels. Or not even novels, really -- just some compelling discussion about social roles, education (and our current vocational obsession with it), etc. . . .

    I wish I could offer you a few more young adult suggestions, but my reading in that area is really limited, and the only once that I can call to mind are geared toward younger or older readers.

    -C
    “Oh crap”
    -- Hellboy

  13. #13
    Banned
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Location
    Illinois
    Posts
    5,046
    Blog Entries
    16
    Well, I'm not teaching at the moment, but I was teaching freshmen and sophomores at the time of the OP. I think The Giver is an excellent book for Jr. High, lower-level high school (even though I enjoyed it immensely as an adult). I still need to do more YA reading.

    A good book for younger readers, I'm thinking grade school level, would be Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories. It's incredibly inventive, and has a nice (nice as in different) cultural influence.

Similar Threads

  1. Books with a Child Protagonist
    By lattywatty in forum General Literature
    Replies: 18
    Last Post: 09-04-2009, 03:25 PM
  2. edit please its called arriving home! :)
    By KateLynn911 in forum Short Story Sharing
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 08-06-2009, 12:26 AM
  3. Child witches in Nigeria
    By Zee. in forum Serious Discussions
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 06-27-2009, 02:29 PM
  4. The child catcher
    By Englishrose in forum Short Story Sharing
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 12-02-2008, 02:57 PM
  5. A Rose for Your Pocket
    By quang_tam3 in forum Short Story Sharing
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 11-12-2008, 05:40 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •