Customer Reviews

The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family

5 star:		(413)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The Lost Boy is an absolutely amazing true story of Dave Pelzer, which chronicles his years from 12 to 18 years of age as a foster child. This is book two of three and now I must go and read the other two books in the trilogy. I could not put this book down. I would recommend this book to everyone.

This will book will make you cry, it will make you mad, and at the end, you will be cheering and crying tears of joy for Dave. This book will break your heart and if you are a parent, you will be outraged at the abuse. Sadly, child abuse is so prevalent, and there are so many cunning, and devious parents out there, that some children do not get out and the abuse is "allowed" to go on and on or the child is killed.

Dave's strength, determination, and unbreakable spirit shine throughout this book. How he survived the brutality can only be called a miracle. It breaks my heart to read of such incredible abuse and one does have to thank the foster parents, social works and teachers in this child's life. Dave says, "It takes a community to save a child", and I wholeheartedly agree.

Dave takes you through his five different foster families during his adolescent years and his desperate determination to find the love of a family and a "home" propels him by not abandoning hope.

Dave's inner strength, courage, and fortitude are a shining inspiration to us all. God bless you Dave and the work that you are doing to help other children. Thank you for opening our eyes and sharing "your" story.

This book and the previous A CHILD CALLED IT provide an engrossing view of child abuse and the needs of those rescued from its grip. It is most helpful precisely because it comes from the point of view of the child as he is living it rather than from well-meaning experts who look from the outside in. As the guardian of a formerly abused youngster, I was particularly interested in the emotional stages that David went through after his rescue. His skill in expressing his own frustratation with himself and his reactions to those who wanted to help him is extraordinary. His story has helped me to help my own "foster" son and to better understand what he has gone through even though he himself cannot yet explain much of his behavior. I hope he will someday feel comfortable about reading THE LOST BOY and perhaps telling his own story after the wounds of his experience have become less raw. I anxiously await the third book in the series, for I wonder how the final healing has taken place for Mr. Pelzer. What has happened to his parents; did he ever learn why his mother behaved as she did? How has he learned to parent his own child in the absence of a proper example in his childhood? I think the answers to these questions might show the way for many like him who are even now struggling not to survive, or to find a family, but to heal.

This book is a sequel to the book, "A Child Called It." Like the first book, this one is also a very emotional experience for the reader. I experienced feelings of anger, sadness, and frustration. The first chapter reveals how the first book ended with the boy being rescued from his abusive mother. The proceeding chapters go in depth of the child's life in foster care and institutions, always in search of a loving family to care for him. Whats frustrating about this particular book, and like the first, is that it never reveals any consequences the abusive mother recieved. In fact, in this sequel, she still tries to get to him and continues to manipulate the system. What's appalling is she is allowed to do this with little or no consequences. I feel this book should be read by everyone in order to make anyone who can make a difference in our society aware of this issue. It's my hope that in the last sequel, it reveals some of the consequences the abuser recieves to put closure to this issue. Thats why, I feel, the reader feels so frustrated and helpless. These are excellent books by Dave Pelzer. I highly recommend them.

After reading A Child Called IT, I could not help but read the lost boy. And now after reading the lost boy I can't wait to read A man called Dave. The lost boy was about a boy who went through the worst childhood anyone could ever image, or even wish upon anyone else to go through. This book only covers from ages 12-18, which is a lot more pleasant that what he went through the rest of the years. After his school realized what had been happening to David, they called the police and social services and was taken away from his mother. When his mother discovered that David had revealed the family secret she was ferious. But she couldn't do anything to him, they went to court and he was warded to the state until the age of 18, so his mother couldn't get to him. Over the next five years David was stiched from foster home to foster home. A few of the places he became comfortable in but that for one reason or another was taken away. Over the years his mother had said that he was a bad child and that no one could love him. She had said it so much that he belived it. At first he would would have nightmares about her coming to take him back to "the house." His nother had a certain power over him, that was hard for him to get away from. His mother got visitation rights, so she would go and visit him at the home where he was staying, but most of the time she wouldn't even talk to him. She would talk to his foster parent and tell them to be careful because he would try to be sneaky, and that he was such a bad child when he lived with her. When she visited him she never called him by his name, instead, she would call him "The Boy." Around age 17 or 18, David hadn't talked to his father in so long that he decides to go and find him. David ends up finding him, but when he does he is not the man he remembers. He is a drunk and he has no love left in his eyes. His eyes were dark and lost. Reading this book made me realize how strong David was. He had the worst childhood that anyone could ever imagine, and he is still alive and kept his faith through it all.

This book will help enlighten the masses!

Ken Grant, a Home Depotand would be IBM employee also wrote such a book about his experiences growing up as an abused,handicapped and neglected youngster in Massachusetts and experiences both good and bad and good people helped along the way.

Thank you, Mr. Pelzer, for writing your heart in this book. As a foster mother of three little ones, 5, 5, and 3, my heart always breaks for what they have seen and what I do not know yet that they have seen or experienced. You have let the world know that all foster parents are not monsters--and in fact, we try very hard to make our homes better and safer than some biological families' homes. The reason people become foster parents varies as widely as the reason children go into foster care. Each child is special and each child deserves the best care and the sweetest love they can receive. I could not put your book down after I bought it at the airport. My heart broke for your loss and your continued struggle to understand why your mother did those horrific things to you and your family. One could quickly blame the alchohol, but my heart ached as you continually tried to uncover what it was you could have done to make things turn out differently. Sometimes, we do not find the answers in this lifetime---your courage and honesty are appreciated. I highly recommend this book to any parent or anyone who is curious about "the system." My hat is off to you, Mr. Pelzer.

a Ken Grant of Massachusetts and New Hampshire is said to have wrote the first such book of this kind on the market but to have been harassed and blackballed in preventing its publication,"The Wanderer". Grant once lived at the New England Home in Boston.

Grant wrote of the experiences and people Bad and Good that he encountered while an abandoned,abused,handicapped child in state child care for over 15 years, representing less than 1% of the children who end up in state-sponsored care.

Grant later went on to receive a college degree and even to lecture grad students on issues facing such children.

This book serves a valuable purpose in forwarding little known issues for general public review and consumption.

After reading A Child Called It, I of course, had to read Lost Boy. Though, I was very happy to see David got away from his mother, I was more compelled to learn that the school system got involved, finally! Being in foster care itself, can't be a easy task, i.e. living out of a paper sack with the only prized possessions he ever owned, but not knowing from moment to moment if you are going to be pulled out of that home. This book is one of those books that you just can't put down, you have to turn the page to see how David pulls through each situation. Don't pick up this book if you don't have a few hours to spend starting and finishing this book. It is a MUST read! I have purchased A Man Named Dave and have begun to read it. This series is compelling!

After reading Dave Pelzer's "A Child Called It," it really compelled me to read "The Lost Boy." Pelzer explains the life of a foster child (himself) better than anyone else could. I do recommend you read "It" before reading this book in order to better understand the whole story line. It was a very captivating book, which made it hard to put down. "The Lost Boy" is a very inspiring, true story of a young boy's numerous replacement foster-families that he traveled through, until he found the right one who loved him more than he thought ever possible. Just when you thought nothing else could be worse in his life, things go even more downhill for this unfortunate, young boy. Nothing seems to fall in its proper place for David.

I think the reason why I was so hooked on this book was because it was a continuation from Pelzer's first book that I enjoyed so much. It was moving learning and reading about Dave Pelzer's life and what actually does happen to foster children when everything doesn't work. I never knew that it was rare for a child to stay in a foster home for long periods of time, but it was made clear in this book. It touched my heart in so many ways and made me especially sympathetic for those many children who have had rough lives because of their horrendous families.

I am a 31 yr old single foster mother to a 4 yr old boy. By chance I saw "The Lost Boy" in a grocery store & bought it immediately. The insight into the mind of an abused child was invaluable to me. Since then I have purchased and read his other 2 books. The excerpts in the back of the book from the adults involved in Dave's life were especially helpful to me. When things get tough, I go back & re-read them to remind myself that somehow I am impacting my child. I hope that no matter what happens in my little guy's life, that he will remember me in a positive light. These books are painful to read, but shows how it IS possible to beat the odds. I hope that everyone who reads the series becomes more involved in some way, politically, financially or otherwise to make a difference. God bless you Dave.