58 pages 1 hour read

Dave Pelzer

A Child Called It: One Child’s Courage to Survive

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1995

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Paired Texts & Other Resources

Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

The Lost Boy

  • Published in 1997, this is the second of Pelzer’s memoirs.
  • relates to the same themes of Imagination, Control, and The Ideal Family

A Man Named Dave

  • Published in 2000, this is the third of Pelzer’s memoirs.
  • relates to the same themes of Imagination, Control, and The Ideal Family

The Glass Castle

  • Jeannette Walls’s 2006 memoir of her challenging and dysfunctional childhood
  • relates to the same themes of Imagination, Control, and The Ideal Family

Other Student Resources

Interview with Dave Pelzer on Child Abuse

  • an HLN news interview with author Dave Pelzer discussing another prominent child abuse case
  • relates to themes of Control and The Ideal Family

“The Glass Castle” Movie Trailer

  • the 2017 movie based on Jeannette Walls’s 2006 memoir about her challenging and dysfunctional childhood
  • relates to the same themes of Imagination, Control, and The Ideal Family