I am about halfway through in A Child Called It by David Pelzer. I am absolutely in love with this book! It gives me a taste of what other people are going through. I could never imagine being beaten by my mother till I bled, burned alive, or starved to death! That is very hard for my mind to even comprehend! How could someone be so cruel. She scarred Dave's life and if I were David, I would never be able to forgive her.

David is only in elementary school and he is struggling for food. His mother usually doesn't give him breakfast or dinner and only very little lunch. David is so desperate to eat. He thinks about food, dreams about food; food has taken over his mind. He starts stealing food from his piers, neighbors, or anyone else. Of course, his mother finds out and beats "the boy" to a pulp, then she feeds him nothing the whole day. One day, David went a full five days without eating. Once, when David was begging for food, his mother granted his wish and made him eat... his own throw up!

David was washing the dishes being a good boy, but his mother got infuriated because he was not going fast enough (in her mind). Her eyes were full of anger and David knew something bad would happen. Mother picks up a knife and starts swinging it around. All of a sudden, Mother accidently lets go and the knife stabs David in his upper stomach. He tells his father about the incident and he does not do a thing about it. Father is no longer his refuge. He too has become Mother's slave. David says, "Of all Mother’s punishments, I hated the gas chamber game the most” (Pelzer 109). The gas chamber is Dave’s name for the punishment in which his mother placed a mixture of ammonia and Clorox in a bucket in the bathroom and locked the door with Dave inside. The noxious fumes make it almost impossible for him to breathe. He nearly dies and Mother doesn't even care.

STARVING CHILD

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Starving-Child-In-Ethiopia-Photo-by-Cate-Turton-Department-for-International-Development.jpg