The Privilege of Youth: A Teenager's Story

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less

This book, as well as those before it, made me cry SO much, that my mom came in from gardening to see what was wrong... she wouldn't let me read more than a chapter at a time after that... but still, really good book... :,(

Dave goes back in time from the latest Pelzer memoir, A Man Named Dave. He fills in some details regarding his teenage years.

This was very disappointing - not the writing, but what he shares. Dave Pelzer and his life story has truly touched my heart. His books have left a lasting impression on me - his tenacity is encouraging and commendable. However, most of the memories in this book have been mentioned and/or explained in his other three books. This did not fulfill any questions or wonderings I may have had throughout the others. It was a repetition that did not impress me and I feel somewhat duped; hence, my rating. My recommendation is to skip this one and end on a positive note with A Man Named Dave. (2.75/5)

Originally posted on: show more target="_top">"Thoughts of Joy..." show less

Read by Jodine, Spring 2006:
"I'm reading The Privilege of Youth, A Teenager's Story by Dave Pelzer, author of A Child Called It, which we read in Diversity & Inclusion with Tonja Washington last semester. It's the follow up book after Lost Boy. Now Dave is in junior high and high school. He is still bouncing around among different foster homes, but when one family moves into a more upscale neighborhood, he finally makes friends with two boys on the block who make him feel like he belongs. There is a tension in Dave between the urge to work hard at odd jobs and hoard money for the day when he will "age out" of foster care, his 18th birthday, and the urge to play, hang out, and run around with his friends. I think this time to play and show more enjoy friendship is Dave's "privilege of youth." show less

The Privilege of Youth is the fourth book that I have read by Dave Pelzer. This book focuses on one street that Dave lived on in a foster home. The name of the street is Duinsmoore Way. This is the time just before he reached adulthood.

You get to hear what Dave thoughts are during this time. He is living in a foster home in a nice community in California. Duinsmoore is the place where he really feels he belongs and actually gets to live his first time as a child. The one thing that Dave never really got to do or feel before he finds it all on Duinsmoore Way.