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Loading... Privilege of Youth (edition 2007)by Dave Pelzer
Work InformationThe Privilege of Youth: A Teenager's Story by Dave Pelzer
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I read this book after "The Lost Boy" so as to read the story of Dave Pelzer's life in a more chronological order. I enjoyed hearing about the true friendships he made as a teenager after having such a rough start in life and always feeling like he wasn't good enough. I enjoyed hearing about his wife and son. Of course the book was heartbreaking as well, but I don't like to give spoilers, so be prepared for some sadness amidst all the teenage shenannigans. I'm really glad that I picked up "A Child Called It" again and then continued to read the works of this brave man. ( ) Still living in foster homes, being bullied at school and trying to put his tortured past behind him, teen-aged Dave Pelzer suddenly finds himself living in a neighborhood that will come to mean 'home' to him in so many ways. Dave meets and befriends 2 boys, David and Paul, and the 3 share many typical boyhood adventures some of which are just plain dangerous. Although Dave loves his 2 new best friends it is the adult males in the neighborhood that Dave clings to. Never really getting to know his biological father very well Dave is starved for attention from a father figure and he fortunately meets up with 2 who will help him shape his future. One is Paul's father, Dan Brazell, who is the center point of the neighborhood and has the home, or more accurately, the garage where the other neighbors gather to chat. His knowledge of engines and anything mechanical initially attracts Dave to his side. Michael Marsh is the next door neighbor to Dave's foster family. Marsh is known as "The Sarge" by the teen boys as he readily will recount his exploits as an Army Ranger and heavily influences Dave's eventual decision to join the Air Force. In this small neighborhood Dave finds love and acceptance, two things he craved from his own family but never received. As with Pelzer's other books this one strives to be inspirational and to teach that one can overcome any odds to achieve what is most desired. This book, however, reads more like a teen memoir of fun and escapades in the California sunshine. While enjoyable to read, and heart-warming to know that he had found such happiness in that neighborhood, I didn't feel it was up to the standards of his other books. Another frank and insightful look at the life of Dave Pelzer. When one of the men who mentored Dave during his teen years dies, Dave thinks back to the neighborhood where he made his first real friends and had his first introduction to normal, loving families. http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6026465/ Covering his teenage years, David Pelzer's completes the autobiographical account of the difficulties of his childhood and growing up. It concentrates on the time he spent in Duinsmoore Way, Suburban Park, both for the period he lived there in foster care and then regularly returned after he moved to another foster home. It is a moving account and paints a picture of an awkward, resourceful, at times desperate, young man longing for acceptance. Figuring significantly in helping him in coming to terms with himself are some of the residents of Duinsmoore Way including the two younger friends David and Paul he makes there but more significantly his friends' parents and the colourful Sarge. Pelzer takes us through a number of his sometimes wild adventures with his two friends David and Paul, his efforts to save for the time when he will be ejected by the welfare system, and the encouragement he received from the more mature residents of Duinsmoore Way. He also records the constant teasing and bullying he suffered at school. It is however a very positive account, and at times quite moving. The book concludes with several testimonies from some of those who featured in David's young life. The Privilege of Youth is very well written, and makes for a very colourful account of Pelzer's youth. Most enlightening I found was the episodes of the teasing and bullying he suffered at school, providing some insight into the thinking and actions of the victim. It is however very selective, while there is much about his time in Duinsmoore Way (I cannot find that name on the map, is this perhaps Dunsmuir Way?), it tells us almost nothing about his foster parents, and although he moved from school to school he tells of his troubles at just one. I came to this without reading Pelzer's earlier writings, A Child Called "It", The Lost Boy and A Man Named Dave, three books which on completing this I instantly ordered.
This book was amazing! He greatly described all the things he has been put through in his life and moved you through his words alone. Though his life was hard, he pushed through and made it to the successful writing career he has now. The book walks you through each point of his adolescence and tells, in great detail, the horrific story of his childhood. I recommend this to anyone interested in emotional connection through reading. This book for me was a hit! I loved reading about the situations that he went through, and I loved taking my own look at the title and learning about the privilege of youth from his book. The book really was an inspiration from start to finish. As a young person about to transition into the adult world, I loved reading about how he moved into this new world and how he dealt with all of the stress and worries of life. Overall, the book was so great! From reading about the death of his father figure to the reading of his times in schools, the book kept me intrigued the whole time. Belongs to SeriesDave Pelzer (4) Distinctions
The author reveals the story of his struggle through the challenges of adolescence, detailing the taunting he endured from bullies, the joys of making his first real friends, and his quest to escape his difficult home life. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)362.733092Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Social problems of & services to groups of people Child welfare AdoptionLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. Penguin AustraliaAn edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia. |