The Book Cover in Indonesian Version
Can you imagine when a person is not referred to “he” or “she”, but “It”? Here in the book A Child Called It, the pronoun “It” is used by a mother to refer to her own son. The book is all about the son named Dave Pelzer. It starts with the rescue, in 1973, where a school nurse found bruises, cuts, wound on the child’s body until he was finally sent to a foster care.
In the beginning of Dave’s life, there were the “good years” – full of family picnics, holiday frivolity, and his mother’s wonderful cooking. By the age of 4, these happy times turned to misery – fear, starvation and cold dark basement. His alcoholic mother abused him by forcing him to eat his own vomit, swallow soap, burning him on the stove and locking him in a bathroom with terrible fumes of Clorox and ammonia.
This is one of the worst child abuse cases in California’s history which came to an end on March 5, 1973. The great true story of child abuse by Dave Pelzer is easy to read, but difficult to comprehend how a mother could treat her child this way. I myself couldn’t figure out her motivation, even until I read the third book of Dave Pelzer entitled A Man Named Dave. However, once I read an essay by Aya Nakao (1999) from Aoyama Gakuin University, there, it is stated on the main causes of child abuse. Stress situations, basic personality, mental disturbances, deviant personality, social learning and family structures can be the main causes that lead to child abuse. If the abuser grew up in a family without enough love or care, they would probably treat their children the same as how they were being treated in their own childhood. I reckon it is in line with a popular poem by Dorothy Law Nolte (1924 – 2005) that says “If children live with hostility, they learn to fight. If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive. If children live with acceptance, they learn to love. If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.”
The book uses “I” statement, so the readers would be able to feel as Dave feels. It is a highly-recommended book for those who want to enhance sensitivity towards child abuse. So, stop child abuse!
