Book SummaryA Child Called 'It', by Dave Pelzer

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of A Child Called 'It'

From the ages of 4 to 12, Dave Pelzer suffered brutal physical and psychological abuse at his mother’s hands. When he was finally taken from her custody, Pelzer’s case was one of the worst cases of child abuse ever reported in California

A Child Called “It” is Pelzer’s autobiographical account of his experience, told through his childhood perspective; the book is a rare look at the epidemic issue of child abuse through a victim’s lens.This is the first in a trilogy chronicling Pelzer’s experiences—first as a child enduring abuse, then as a teen in foster care, and finally, as an adult rehabilitating from his traumatizing experiences. Throughout them all, Pelzer demonstrates resilience and determination in the face of horrific abuse and adversity.

Before the Abuse

David’s earliest childhood memories are happy ones. He looks up to his fireman father, and he loves his warm, caring mother who goes to great lengths to create memorable and magical experiences for David and his two brothers.

Those early years are filled with day trips to San Francisco, cherished family vacations, and memorable holiday traditions. But amidst it all, there are a few hints of Mother’s odd behaviors.

For example, one day Mother seems unlike herself and claims to be sick, but after dinner she manically paints the garage steps and tacks on rubber mats before the paint has dried, making a mess of the wet paint. When David asks her why she didn’t wait until the paint dried, Mother simply says that she wanted to surprise his father.

Since the book is written from David’s childhood perspective, he doesn’t question or analyze details like this with an adult’s insight. Rather, he accepts them as a child would.

The Change

Around the time David’s in first grade, Mother’s behavior shifts dramatically.

Mother limits the severity of her abuse when Father is home, but he works 24-hour shifts at the fire station and is often out of the house. Mother singles out David among his brothers and subjects him to increasingly cruel punishments, including:

• Shoving David’s face into a mirror and then forcing him to stand in front of it, looking at his reflection and repeating, “I’m a bad boy!”
• Leaving David at his aunt’s house with no explanation while the rest of the family goes on their annual vacation, and then beating him when she finds out he tried to run away to join the family.
• Giving David no gifts for Christmas—while his brothers each get dozens—and berating Father for getting David two small gifts.

One day, the abuse reaches a turning point when Mother holds David’s arm over a flame on the stove and then tries forcing him to lie on top of the stove. That day David vows to take responsibility for his survival and outsmart Mother any way he can.

Mother Weaponizes Food

Withholding food is Mother’s primary punishment for David; he seldom gets dinner or breakfast. Father tries to help David by sneaking food scraps to him, but when Mother catches him, it causes huge arguments that ultimately make things worse for David.

David resorts to several methods of stealing food at school:

• Taking food from other students’ lunches
• Sprinting to a nearby grocery store during lunch recess and stealing food
• Sneaking a frozen lunch from the school cafeteria

David always ends up getting caught, and eventually, Mother starts forcing him to vomit every day after school to ensure he hasn’t stolen any food during the day.

Mother Forces David to Eat the Inedible

David is also forced to eat disgusting and harmful things—sometimes as punishment and sometimes out of desperation—including:

• Dishwashing soap
• A spoonful of ammonia
• Dinner scraps out of the trash can
• Feces from his baby brother’s dirty diaper (in this case, Mother shoves David’s face in the diaper but he manages to avoid eating any)

Mother Ostracizes David

**Mother’s abuse is designed to isolate David...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Introduction

A Child Called “It” is author Dave Pelzer’s autobiographical account of the abuse he endured at his mother’s hands from ages 4 to 12. His experience was one of the worst cases of child abuse reported in California history at the time.

The book is the first in a trilogy—the first chronicling the childhood abuse, the second his teenage years in foster care, and the third his rehabilitation in adulthood. **The books showcase...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Chapter 1: David Is Saved

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.

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’s 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’s bruises.

Today the principal, two of David’s teachers, the school nurse, and a police...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Chapter 2: Before the Abuse

Before David’s abuse begins, his family life is idyllic. His father is a San Francisco fireman and his mother stays home to care for David and his two brothers. She’s a caring mother who goes to great lengths to create memorable and magical experiences for her children.

Once, Mother takes David and his brothers to San Francisco’s Chinatown, describing Chinese culture and history along the way. When they get back home, she plays Chinese music and decorates the dining room with Chinese lanterns. She wears a kimono while serving the dinner she’s prepared, and gives the children each a fortune cookie for dessert; David later finds this fortune cookie and reads, “Love and honor thy mother, for she is the fruit that gives thou life.”

Mother also orchestrates cherished family vacations, the most notable of which is a trip to the Russian River at the end of David’s kindergarten year. David and his brothers spend each day exploring and Mother teaches David to swim. One night, the family watches the sunset over the river, and as they watch, David’s mother hugs him, making him feel both proud and protected.

In addition,...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Chapter 3: The Change

Around the time David’s in first grade, Mother’s behavior shifts dramatically.

Mother singles out David among his brothers for increasingly cruel punishments. The only explanation David can come up with is that his voice probably carries more than his brothers’ and that he often has the bad luck of being the only one to get caught when they all get into mischief.

At first, Mother punishes David with time out in a corner of his bedroom. After a while, she ups the punishment: Mother shoves David’s face into a mirror and then forces him to stand in front of it, looking at his reflection and repeating, “I’m a bad boy!”

At one point, Mother starts sending David and his brothers on endless searches through the house for some item she’s lost. The searches last for months and are never fruitful. Eventually, David is the only one she forces to search, and he dreams of finding the item and getting his mother’s praise and affection in return.

Father Is David’s Passive Protector

David’s father works 24-hour shifts at the firehouse. On the days Father’s home from work, Mother largely refrains from—or at least limits—her abuse.Consequently, David sees Father as his...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Chapter 4: Mother Weaponizes Food

Withholding food is Mother’s primary punishment for David. She seldom feeds David dinner or breakfast—at most, if he finishes his morning chores in time, he gets his brothers’ cereal leftovers.

Father tries to help David, but he doesn’t dare cross Mother to do so. Sometimes Father sneaks food scraps to David or gets Mother drunk in hopes that it will help, but alcohol only makes her crueler. And worse, Father’s efforts cause fights between him and Mother, which Mother blames and takes out on David.

Additionally, Mother ostracizes David and essentially forces him into the role of “family slave.” She:

• Forbids David looking at or talking to anyone
• Forces David to stand in the garage each night while his family eats dinner
• Forbids David from playing or watching TV with his brothers
• Stops using David’s name altogether, simply calling him “the Boy”
• Forces David to sleep under the breakfast table with only newspapers for warmth; eventually she banishes him to sleep on an old army cot in the cold garage

Stealing Food at School

David gets so desperate for food that he resorts to stealing food from his classmates’ lunches when he’s in first grade. His...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Chapter 5: Mother Stabs David

By the summer before David’s 11th birthday, the abuse has worsened.

David is accustomed to his role as the family slave by now. David’s not allowed to look at Mother or his brothers without permission, and while the family’s eating dinner, David now must sit on his hands with his head tilted back like a prisoner of war, as Mother says.

David seldom gets breakfast, even when he finishes his morning chores. While school’s out for summer break, he never gets lunch. Typically, David gets dinner once every three days, but even that is contingent on him completing his chores within the time limits Mother dictates.

The Accidental Stabbing

One night after dinner, Mother is giving David his list of chores and time limits. As usual, she’s drunk. Mother holds a knife in her hand as she barks at David, threatening to kill him if he doesn’t finish his work on time.

She begins to sway. Mother struggles to regain her balance and in a moment the knife in her hand strikes David’sstomach.(Shortform note: There’s little detail about whether she falls and how exactly this occurs. The author says he’s focused on looking into her eyes, sees the knife out of the corner of his eye,...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Chapter 6: Mother Is Cruelest When Father’s Away

Despite David’s repeated disappointments in Father—and Father’s failure to defend David—David still loves Father and considers him his protector because Mother limits her abuse when Father is home. Father tells David that he’s working on a plan to get them both out of the “madhouse.”

However, Father still refuses to cross Mother in order to protect David, and as time goes on, Father spends more time at work and out at bars to avoid being home. When Father is out of the house, Mother unleashes her cruelest forms of abuse.

Mother Starves David

David often goes days without eating, but in one instance he far surpasses his typical three days: For 10 days, David survives only on water.

In one of her “games,” Mother puts a plate of cold food scraps in front of David on the sixth day and tells him he has two minutes to eat. But as soon as he picks up the fork, she grabs the plate away from him.

Mother repeats this the next three nights, until finally David is able to tilt the plate and shove the food into his mouth fast enough to beat Mother’s attempt to take it away. David feels triumphant: Again, he’s managed to beat Mother and survive another day.

The Gas...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Chapter 7: David Hits Rock Bottom

After the incident with the social services worker—just before starting fifth grade—David loses faith in God and any hope of having a better life.David’s been praying to God for years, and he can’t fathom how he could live such a miserable life if God exists. David resigns himself to simply surviving each day.

David no longer mourns the lack of dignity and respect he receives. He will do anything to survive, resorting to any means necessary to get food. He even eats table scraps out of the dogs’ food bowl after the dogs have picked through it.

David detaches himself from physical pain and shows no outward emotion unless it’s strategic, when he thinks it will ease the abuse. Whereas he previously used his imagination to escape his torment, David stops dreaming and fantasizing. (Shortform note: Trauma survivors often stop using their imaginations. Read more about the effects of trauma in our summary of The Body Keeps the Score.)

David’s Hate Grows

In David’s loss of hope, he comes to hate everyone around him because no one has stepped in to save him.

First, besides hating Mother for the abuse, he...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Epilogue

This is the only part of the book that offers David’s retrospective as an adult, as opposed to his childhood perspective.

David reflects on how helpless he felt during the abuse and how endless it seemed—until one day it abruptly ended when he was taken from Mother’s custody.

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 shaping him in several ways:

• Going so long without...

A Child Called 'It' Summary Afterword: A Survivor’s Perspective on Child Abuse

David felt completely alone in his abuse, but thousands of children endure similar atrocities. (Shortform note: As of 2015, the United States had 2.9 million child abuse cases reported annually.)

You’re likely to hear about unusual cases of abuse—such as grisly murders and extreme neglect—in the media. But more often, victims suffer quietly, join gangs, or run away from home.

The hardship is seldom over when the abuse ends: Adult survivors of child abuse are more inclined to lash out or engage in self-destructive behaviors than the general population. (Shortform note: Child abuse survivors are 59 percent more likely to be arrested as a juvenile and 28 percent more likely to be arrested in adulthood.)

Many survivors also struggle to build and maintain healthy relationships because they’ve had such poor models; David intentionally broke the typical cycle of abuse in his relationship with his son.

David shared his story of abuse for two reasons:

• To demonstrate the strength of the human spirit under even the worst conditions *...

Shortform Exercise: Overcoming Obstacles

Pelzer’s story of persevering and triumphing through adversity offers inspiration for overcoming any obstacle in life.

Describe a recent incident when you had to overcome a major hurdle.