I read this many years ago, and while it is a book that has really stayed with me, I don't know if I would ever be willing to put myself through the heartache of rereading it. A Child Called "It" is a memoir highlighting Dave's childhood, and it describes some of the most godawful abuse I could ever imagine. I remember raging and sobbing through the majority of the book, and that was YEARS ago; now that I'm an adult, and a mother, and these things have become so much more realistic and impactful for me, there's no way I could stomach imagining even a fraction of the pain that Dave Pelzer underwent in his childhood.

Don't let my review dissuade you from reading it; by all means, if you don't think it will be too damaging for you (ex.: I would not recommend this to a survivor of intense child abuse), pick it up. Let this book bring you to tears. Rage for Dave's lost childhood, and then remember to rage and cry for the lost childhoods of little ones all over the globe, throughout history and now. There are some things that must not be swept under the rug, and child abuse is one of those things.