A Child Called "It" by David Pelzer

This book is the true story of a boy named David Pelzer. His life started out great. He had two brothers and a loving mother and father. Before the abuse started, their family was filled with love. His dad was a fireman, and that caused him to be at work a lot of the time.
When Dave was a little boy, his mother suddenly started changing and claimed that she was sick. She started drinking. That's when the punishments started. First they were simple, just sitting in the corner until he was told he could go play again. The thing that confused me while I was reading this book was that his mom only punished him, not his brothers. His punishments then became more brutal. She started beating him severly and one time she even had to take him to the hospital. Of course, the injury was just an "accident". She wouldn't even let him eat either. He had to steal food from the school cafeteria and other kids lunches to get food.
At first, Dave's father was pretty much his savior. Whenever he was around, his mother acted much differently. She let him play with his brothers and eat with the family. His father soon found out about his abuse, and started to help him out by giving him food. After a little while, all he would do was just stand there and watch as the abuse happened.
David's mom started thinking of better ways to torture him. She would lock him in the bathroom with a bucket of Clorox and ammonia. He would even pass out sometimes. She would burn him on the stove, and do much more horrible things.
It amazes me that he survived through all of that torture. His father also left the family so it was even harder for him to survive. This book is probably one of the saddest books I've read. It's really sad that all of this really happened to him, and that it happens to other kids too.
He has a sequel called The Lost Boy about him being a foster child and trying to find a real home. A Child Called "It" is definitely a good book to read, but it is also really sad. It also swears and the parts where his mother is beating him is kind of hard to get past because it has so many details.