The Child Called It

                

     This book is a very unforgettable one. It is about a child who had the will to live. What started out as a loving family and turned into what is called one of the worst cases of abuse in California. Dave was starved, tortured, and isolated by his mother as his father remained indifferent to the situation.
     Dave recounted the earlier times when his mother was the best mother. Her pride and joy was taking care of her family and her home. As a normal little boy, Dave was mischievous. His mother started spending a lot of time  on the couch. When she felt that corner treatment was too small, the discipline turned to abuse. She began to isolate him from the rest of the family, gave him the leftover after everyone finished eating, and tortured him. One special punishment she had for Dave was gas chamber. She would put ammonia and chlorine together and put it in a bucket in bathroom and locked him in there for hours at a time. When Dave looked to his father for help, he told him not to piss her off and let her overpower him when his father tried to talk to her about the abuse. When his mother gave birth to a baby named Richard, things become even worse. Dave loved Richard, but as Richard grew up he became his mother helper. He would lie and tell on Dave, making things worse for Dave. At the end, Dave's father decided to leave and Dave hoped with all his heart that his father would leave with him. It continues in The Lost Boy.
     The story was very sad and made me cry. I putting myself in that situation, I really don't think I could survive. I felt this way because I wouldn't able to deal with the fact that the one person I should have been able to trust betrayed me in such a horrible way.
    The book is written by order of events. It tells of earlier times then moves on details how things got worse until his father leaves. The book is in chronological order. The best way to organize is in a outline so all the info can be written out nicely.