Pelzer

A Child Called -It-- One Child-s Courage to Survive

4 stars (Wonderful Insight into Resilence and Protective Factors) - I had been wanting to purchase this book for quite some time, but never got around to it until it was assigned for a psychology course I was enrolled in. True, it is a short text, and true, the grammar is not perfect - but it is not meant to be. Pelzer wrote the book as an adult, but tried to write it from his perspective when he was a child (the time period when he actually experienced the events detailed in the book). If this book had been written from a purely adult, grammatically "proper" perspective, it would have gained a more "distant" tone and thereby lost some of it's power to really grip and touch the reader. The text can be read in awe of what Pelzer experienced as a child, certainly. But that is not all one can gather from it. The trianglization, power struggles, and family dynamics which play out throughout the story are not only dramatic, but very clinically realistic. The potential effects of alcohol use on family structure are an eye-opener. And most of all, one should note the protective factors David found in his life which enabled him to survive his mother's horrendous patterns of abuse - while they are not nearly so dramatic as all the "punishment" he endured, they are just as significant. This would be a good book particularly for anyone who works with children (or plans to), whether they are a psychologist, counselor, educator, social worker, mentor, or even a parent. Too often adults see only the negative things that have happened to a child, and fear the effects that those things may have on the child's behavior or personality... it is just as important to be able to recognize what strengths, talents, and interests are in children which allow them to cope with or overcome negative factors. 1 stars (laundry list with no context) - If the abuse was real, or if even part of it was, my sympathy goes out to the author and my praise for rising above it. Ho...
HCI :: Self-Help & General :: Specific Groups - Special Needs :: Personal Memoirs :: Pelzer :: David J :: General :: Family relationships :: Daly City :: Children of alcohol :: A Child Called -It-- One Child-s Courage to Survive