Bokrecension: A Child Called

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I have read the book ‘‘A child called ‘It’’’. I chose it because I have heard about it before and people told me that it was really good. In the beginning of the book, the main character, which is a boy called David, is living a happy life with a loving mother and loving father and brothers. He is living a normal life and is treated with love of his family. But that soon changes, when he’s maybe five or six years he is turned into the black sheep of the family and his mother, who earlier was firm but caring is now turned into a mental monster, at least to David. His brothers quietly watch as their mother locks David into their bathroom and uses it as a gas chamber. She also stabs him in the stomach with a kitchen knife and forces him to climb onto the scorching stove, she presses teaspoons of ammoniac into his mouth, makes him eat poop from his little brothers diaper and lots of other horrible things. His mother has got addicted to punish David (for no reason) and every time, she loves to come up with more painful ways of discipline him. Often, David doesn’t get any food in about three to seven days and he’s got to do all the chores in the house, like doing the dishes, clean the toilet and stuff like that. He lives on awful terms on an army blanket in the basement. His mother doesn’t just ruin David’s life. She manipulates all the family and tells them not to take notice of David. In that way, she’s making David’s life a living hell.

The whole book is written in David’s point of view. You get to know how he feels like when he is at the age of four to twelve (when this book is taking place). The book is based on a real story and the author was once that boy. This is the first book in a trilogy. The second book is called ‘’The Lost Boy’’, it’s taking place when David is between twelve and eighteen years old and the third one, ‘‘A Man Named Dave’’ is based on David’s adult life. Practically the whole first book is taking place in their big house and David is not allowed to go outside that much. But there are also parts that are taking place at his school where he steals lunch boxes from other pupils, however; it’s no use because every day when he gets home from school, his mother demands him to vomit.

I haven’t finished all the 169 pages, just about 130, so I don’t really know the end but my guess is that he’s going to be free. The school nurse who has seen his scars and bruises will take care of that and he will probably be sent to an orphanage or something and I believe that whatever happens to him there, he will have a better life there then at his home.

So what do I think of the book? I think it’s good. Maybe not a book I will always remember but it really affects your feelings, reading about how a little boy who hasn’t done anything wrong and has to put up with so much. It’s amazing how strong the main character is and I think that was what saved him from just giving up and die when he was a kid. The mother is hard to figure out but obviously, she’s just totally crashed, inside and outside. However, nothing in the book gives me a clue of how and mostly why she made that transition from loving and caring to a psychical, non human creature.

Besides, the other members of the family don’t do anything to stop her. The sons are maybe to young to realise how serious it is, but their father. Why doesn’t he do something. Sure he knows what’s going on ...