In the book A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer, Dave is treated very poorly; many unexpected things happen to him while he is living at his house. In his younger years before the abuse started, his mother Catherine and his father Stephan used to love him and treat him just as if they treated his other two brothers. Soon enough things changed in the household, Dave’s punishment starts out with standing in a corner for many house; quickly switching to vicious things. He had to wash dishes in a time limit which he never seemed to finish in time, the water was scalding hot. That was only the beginning of what has happened to him, his mom smashed his head onto mirrors making him repeat over and over “I am a bad boy”. He would go days without any food, he started stealing food from other classmates lunch boxes; the school realized it was him and called his mother. He always tried to stay a step ahead of her, but things didn’t work out as he had planned every attempt he made to get food; his mother made him throw up the food and knew he had eaten or not. She made him drink spoonfuls of ammonia which Dave thought at those moments that he was going to die, this treatment didn’t last long. She quickly changed it to him having to clean the bathroom with the door closed and a bucket of ammonia and Clorox. Many students picked on Dave for the way he had dressed, smelled, and acted; but he couldn’t help it. He was an easy target for the bullies; his mother decided that she wanted him held back in the first grade, which made him in the same grade as Stan. He never got presents at Christmas; Stan questioned why Dave only had gotten a few presents and that resulted in a lecture. Dave was now treated like the slave of the family, she thought of a new punishment for him quickly. She asked him to take off all his clothes while filling up the bathtub with all cold water, he didn’t quite understand it at first, but soon enough he hated it. His head had to be under the freezing cold water while, she would tell him to get out going outside and sit on a rock for hours. He tried to sit in the sunny part, but she requested in the shade so he did what she said. Dave quickly realized that he had to be stronger then her, but she got him to hate himself. His heart sunk deeper then ever when he finally knew his mother only recgonized him as an "it", not a real person anymore.