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!

The Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer

February is "biography month" for Books and Beer Club. We select each month's month at the previous month's meeting. If people don't come with several titles in mind, we pull out our phones and start throwing out names. One person suggested we read one of the Trump or Hillary books. Nope, we're not going political. Whew, that's a relief. What about a Jesse Owens book? After all, it's Black History Month. There are several books about the Florida woman who started Tupperware. Local interest as well as biography.

Another member and I had been browsing lists which proclaimed themselves to include the top (10, 100, 101...) biographies you need to read. She saw The Child Called "It" pop up on two of the lists. "Hey, here's a book I was supposed to read in college. And it's short." That's how our February book was selected. (I need to check old lists from my community book club. I think this might have been suggested there too awhile back.)
The book was short (less than 200 pages on my iPad with a reasonable font-size. It was also a quick read... but definitely not an easy book to read. It's autobiographical, covers Dave Pelzer from the ages of about 4 to 12, and it's written in a child's voice. Dave Pelzer's life as a victim of child abuse is one of the most extreme cases documented in the state of California. This book is a narrative of what took place and how young Dave struggled to survive.
Beyond the obvious question of how a mother can treat her son in such a horrific way, I was left with many more questions. How did Dave's father allow this to happen? Didn't he have any wish to protect Dave? I wanted to protect my kids every time their father hurled angry, belittling words their way. What about Dave's grandmother? Was she too afraid of her daughter to do anything to remove Dave from the dangerous situation he was living in?
Had times changed so much from the early 1970s to the late 1990s when I began my teacher training? We were given so much instruction on what to do in suspected cases of child abuse. I'm sure handling and reporting has evolved over that time. But we're teachers instructed back then to just look the other way? I didn't find it surprising that the substitute teacher was the first one to show Dave compassion.

While thought provoking, I'm not sure why this was a standalone book. I can see where it can be used as a case study for a college or graduate class. But for an non-academic reader, this leaves far too many of my questions unanswered. In fact, I've already got Book #2 in the series (there are 3 books in total) on hold at the library.