The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer

After completing The Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer with so many questions, I immediately waitlisted myself for an e-copy of the second in his series, The Lost Boy. I was hoping I'd find the answers to my many questions.

Now that I've finished The Lost Boy, I have a few more questions. Since I suspect they won't be answered in the final book in this trilogy, I'll hold off requesting that one for awhile.

The Lost Boy gives a quick recap of Dave's life at home with his mother. And then picks up as he's being rescued and removed from his home and placed into the California foster care system.

I'm not sure if I didn't like the book because it didn't answer my questions or because at times I felt that Dave was too self-congratulatory. I did, however, appreciate reading about the good and the bad of Dave's experience as a foster child in California. I learned that at least during the time he was in foster care, his parents were both able to get in touch with him. Legally, however, he was not supposed to be getting in touch with his mother. That makes no sense since his mother was the one piling on the abuse.

Like the first book, this was a very quick read. And like the first book, it's going to take me some time to process all I've read.

Though I wasn't thrilled with the narrative, at the end of the book were acknowledgements, resources and then commentary from those that helped Dave on his journey from that of an abused child to a functioning, successful adult. I found these well-written, interesting and informative. As much as we often see that the foster care system is broken and we hear horrific stories of children in foster care being neglected - or foster children acting out and harming their foster parents, foster care can be a positive thing. It can be a very positive thing. It might not work perfectly, but often it can work. Things have changed so much from the time Dave was in foster care to the time when this second book was written to today. There have been advances in teacher training, in programs for foster families and the insight of social workers. It was nice to read some positive things since so often we only hear the bad stuff.

The fact remains that social workers are still overworked, it's often difficult to match the proper child to the appropriate foster home and many children still fall between the cracks. As I was reading, I could only imagine some of the discussion that we'd have in my community book club should we ever choose to discuss this book. We're a "Let's Try to Save the World" type of book club. We'd have our hands full with this book.

Would I recommend this book? I gave it three stars on Goodreads. I think I'd recommend it for a book club, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it for an individual to read without discussing. If any of you choose to read this book, I'll be happy to discuss it with you!