Janet's Book Nook

Hello Readers! I haven’t done a book review in quite some time but I have been so busy with back to school and PTA that I haven’t had much time to read. I have had a book I was reading when I got a chance and I just finished it. I have to say that this book really touched me. I can’t say I ever really considered foster children very much. I wasn’t directly touched in my life by fostering and so it just didn’t cross my mind. This book has changed that in ways I can’t explain. It has spurred me to look for ways to help. I can’t say that I am the type of person to foster a child, I have three small children and not a lot of patience. I do think that there are a million other ways for people to help children that have been placed in "the system." My new goal this month is to find out what options there are and find a way to make even a small difference. Perhaps as a CASA advocate. Maybe just financial help to a local program. I could even see doing something wonderful for the amazing people who give of themselves, their families and their lives to give children a better life.

Back to the book. This book details the horrendous things that Dave Pelzer lived through as a young child and pre-teen. The things his mother did to him were worse than anything I have ever read described. It truly is a testament to his will to live that he didn’t just die in that environment. He was forced to live in a basement on a cot with no covers. He was forced to drink cleaning fluids when he didn’t complete his chores in a timely manner. He was beaten and abused and humiliated in ways no human should ever have to survive. Just when he thought he was going to have to die to get out of the pain he was ‘rescued’ by an observant teacher and school system and taken away from his abusive mother. The book doesn’t end there though. Mr. Pelzer didn’t write the book as a means to let the world know about the horrors of his childhood. He wrote it so that he could tell the story of the people who saved him every step of the way once he left his mother’s "care." He wrote this book to show that foster children are not throw aways who are to be looked down upon. They are children who are victims and people often times victimize them even more by assuming that they must have done something to deserve being put in foster care. He also wanted to show that foster parents are not people out to make a buck at the expense of the children they accept. He attributes his survival and the amazing person he is today to the people who fostered him along the way.

I highly recommend this book to everyone! I think we all could learn a lesson about the importance of fostering children either as foster parents, mentors, facilitators or even just Big Brothers/Big Sisters.