"Four Memoirs in Four Days"

I just got done reading the Pelzer memoirs. "A Child Called It", "The Lost Boy", "A Brother's Journey" and "A Teenager's Journey" by David and Richard Pelzer. These boys endured the third most severe case of child abuse in CA history as of the 1970's. In black I will be quoting comments that the men make, and in purple will be my comments. I've added these books to my list of recommended reading on my website.

6/27/08

According to "A Child Called It" 1/5 of American kids are either physically, sexually or emotionally abused.

Based on what I witnessed while living in Baltimore City, I'd say it's much higher than 1/5.

p.165 David says:

"For years I was confined to the darkness of my own mind and heart, being alone and a loser."

R.Pelzer in a teenager's journey says: "Would I ever stop being more than miserable at simply being alive?" P's narrator says: "he drowned himself in drugs; the blissful highs blunted his pain"

page xv by R. Pelzer

"Everything I did and everyone I came across seemed meaningless and impersonal, except Darlene" "Darlene gave me respect and the opportunity to speak, friendship and hope"

"What eased the fear of being 15 and homeless (david) is that I might be better off"

"This is how I felt about living at La Pew"

p.20 "I found little happiness in anything I experienced"

p.23 "One of the few photos I have of mom..."was appropriate and shows her with gigantic, vicious carnivores towering above her"

p.252 David says: "I didn't care whether I slep on a couch or a bed of nails. I just wanted a place I could call home"

That's how I felt about my 5 nights on the floor after escaping La Pew

A TEENAGER'S JOURNEY

P.29

Mom had led the neighbors to believe I was dangerous and mentally unstable"

"I'm tired of being who I am but mostly I'm just tired"

p.62 "My journal had become my only true friend"

p. 173 "There was almost no one around who knew anything about me, where I grew up, my family, my education or any detail that mes me different" "I was nobody, nowhere"

"It's not who we once were that matters, or what we thought of ourselves before today. What matters is to know who we are and what we can accomplish."