Anna Wang
December 19, 2009
Mr. BG
Review
Second Quarter Outside Reading Book Review
The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer. Health Communications, Inc. Genre: non fiction
The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer is based on the author’s childhood life when he was in foster care, after moving out of his mother’s house. It is the sequel to A Child Called It and the second book of this trilogy. In this book, David has to face many obstacles including the fear of “betraying” his mother, going to court, and making friends, which is difficult because many people have prejudice against foster children, and calls them “F-child”. He seeks love from his foster parents, since he never really got any from his mother. This book is filled with obstacles and him overcoming them. As he got older, he became less of a timid child who only seeks to please, and more confident and less afraid of the world around him. You can see David as he matures and overcomes the obstacles in his life.
"The Lost Boy" is the harrowing but ultimately uplifting true story of a boy's journey through the foster-care system in search of a family to love. This is Dave Pelzer's long-awaited sequel to "A Child Called "It". The Lost Boy" is Pelzer's story--a moving sequel and inspirational read for all.” –Amazon.com
Dave Pelzer descriptively described his life while he was in foster care. He describes his emotions so that the reader can feel it as if they were in his shoes. While in foster care, he faced many challenges including rejection from his peers at school and even adults just because he is a foster child. David wrote the story as if he is went back in time and was reliving it, instead of writing it as if he was looking back. Throughout this book, you feel hope that he will come through in the end, that he will persevere and work hard to overcome his struggles instead of running away from them.
“I tried to imagine what it must be like for them to live with Mother now. I pray that somehow my brothers would forgive me. I felt like a deserter. I also prayed that the cycle of hate had not moved on to one of them. I felt sorry for them. They had to live in total hell.” (page 54)
I usually hate biographies, or any non fiction books for that matter because they bore me to tears. This book is an exception. It is very interesting, and instead of boring me to tears, it makes me cry tears of sadness as well as happiness as Dave goes through the ups and downs of this life.
