Fourth Quater Outside Reading Book Review

The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer. Health Communications, Inc., 1997. Genre: Nonfictional novel

The Lost Boy is a story about a boy named Dave. It is the sequel to A Child Called "It." It takes place in California. Dave had been abused by his alcoholic mother in his early childhood. The story is about him leaving her and going into Foster Care. He goes from the age of twelve to eighteen in this book. It is about him going from foster house to foster house in search of a place to call home where people love him.

"The Lost Boy stands shining as the premier book on the unique love and dedication that social services and foster families provide for our children in peril. Dave Pelzer is certainly a living testament of resilience, personal responsibility and the triumph of the human spirit." -John Bradshaw, bestselling author of Bradshaw On: The Family, Homecoming and Family Secrets


David Pelzer's writing style changes slightly in this book when compared to the first one in the series. In A Child Called "It," he wrote more like a child speaks or thinks. In The Lost Boy he writes like a teenager would speak or think. He takes on his child-like persona really well. In his writing, you feel like you are the one experiencing what he went through because he describes everything so vividly. I'm surprised that he could remember so much. If I was him, I would want to block those memories out. He does the exact opposite. He uses his bad experiences to educate people on what is happening in the world. I think that's the reason why he wrote these books.

"David, this is not a time to act funny. You have to understand something: You're a foster child. A foster child. And because of that, you've got two strikes against you. You have to be careful of everything you say and everything you do. If you get into trouble, we...we could lose you" (142).


I really liked this book. In my opinion, it wasn't as good as the first book in the series, but I still liked this one. My mother is a therapist. She worked in Holyoke for about fifteen years. She dealt with situations like this (but not as severe) all the time. At times she would get so stressed out about what someone was going through, she would come home and cry. I felt bad for my mother. I never really thought about the people she worked with. When I started to read this series, it reminded me of them. I realized that the ones that I should feel sorry for were the people that had to deal with his stuff every single day of their lives. I think that this book has really opened up my eyes to what is happening every day. It made me thankful for my life and it made me want to go out and help them in any way.

In Monotone

My heart beats so fast that I barely know
if it is still beating. My limbs feel as if they aren't
working properly, either.
It's just nerves..
not a big deal

If it's not such a big deal,
then why am I acting this way?
Why can't I just take a deep breath of air
and make it all go away?

I can't because of my nerves
and my fears.
They control me.

Alright, here I come.
That's my cue.
I have to go and say my lines
and act like I've never acted before.
But I know I cannot.

My fear controls me.

I know I will come up short.
I will simply say my lines in
a monotone
and act the way I'm supposed to.

This play that I've got going for myself
is only up to par.

I am not in control.

Santiago's Nobility

In order to survive, man must kill. To gain nourishment and further our existence, we have to end the existence of another. Even if it is just animals, we still don’t like to think about it. Although, we know that it is happening. Let’s take Santiago, for example. The wise old man from Cuba thought of the marlin as his brother, yet he still had to kill it. Santiago had to go through so much to catch this marlin, but he never gave up and he held onto his innocence the entire time. Having to catch the marlin and then having it taken away from him was most likely devastating.

Santiago is a devoted fisherman. He hasn't caught a fish in a long time, but he's still optimistic because he comes out to sea every single day and works compassionately to catch them. If that isn’t determination, I don’t know what is. “My choice was to go there and find him beyond all people. Beyond all people in the world. Now we are joined together and have been since noon. And no one to help either of us” (50). When catching the marlin, he was patient and he never gave up. He held onto that rope for three days and never once thought about letting it go. That is a life lesson to all of Ernest Hemingway’s readers. Perseverance is a life value that you should live by because in the end, you’ll probably catch that marlin.

Going back to the first paragraph, Santiago had to kill the marlin even though he thought of it as his brother. He had to kill it because he was poor and he needed the money. I think that Santiago had an extreme respect towards nature and the animals in it. He lived off of nature. That’s why he thought of the marlin as his brother. Santiago thought: “You loved [the marlin] when he was alive and you loved him after” (105). He loved the marlin because he respected it. The marlin was going to grant him money for food and pride for being a fisherman.

I also said that he held onto his innocence. What I meant by saying that was that in some way or another, Santiago held onto his childhood through his dreams. Ernest Hemingway writes: “He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach” (25). When I read this, I was astounded and curious. How could anyone never dream about their wife? I then realized that his childhood was a time of peace in his life, so it was left in his subconscious. The lions were the best part of his childhood. He hadn’t let go of his childhood memories, which is something that few people do.

In order to survive, Santiago had to kill. Santiago knew how to live, even though he was living in poverty. He was ambitious, cared for people, animals, and nature, and he knew how to hold onto his childhood. People should learn a thing or two from him. They should take what he does and apply it to their own life. Whoever would do that would be a better person in the end. His morals should make others envious. These few life values make him noble when compared to actual people. Ernest Hemingway had great themes throughout his moralistic and metaphorical book. He makes Santiago such a role model to people everywhere in all types of situations.