Dave Pelzer's Diving Chapter Summaries

The book begins with the rescue basically, of this young boy named Dave Pelzer. During an examination by the school nurse Dave said he ran into a door, the nurse reminds him that he said that the week previous. Dave then changes his story saying he was playing baseball and got hit by the bat accidentally. This leads to the nurse examining Dave further, having him take off the torn clothing and revealing the scar on his stomach from where his mother had stabbed him. Dave is brought to the teacher's lounge and a police officer asks him to tell of his mother and the abuse and he hesitantly did so. The chapter then ends with the police officer taking Dave to the police station and while going down the highway the officer tells him he is free and
The father begins spending less and less time at home, resulting in Dave getting even more beatings from his mother because she is blaming him for the issues in her marriage. That summer the family goes on a vacation and it seems as if Dave and his mother are getting along better until one day he is playing with his brothers and she scolds him for being too loud and is not allowed to go with them to the slide. Dave's mother punishes him even further by taking a dirty diaper and smearing it in his face, trying to get him to eat it. When he refuses she hits him and then the abuse stops long enough for her to tend to the baby and then she rubs another dirty diaper into Dave's face and tells him again to eat it. Just in time, the family returns and the abuse stops with his mother throwing a washcloth at him to clean himself up and then forces him to sit in the corner for the remainder of the night. The next chapter has Dave's father coming home even less, but when he does he helps Dave to wash the dishes. When his mother scolds his father saying the boy should not be helped, Dave's father becomes rarely seen at
I had always been told this book was incredible and I never read it because it just didn't seem like my type of book, but this course gave me the opportunity to read this book and really reflect on it. I suppose there are many different ways that I could use this book in both my personal and professional life. All of the different things going on in this book really helped me to notice some of the signs that children who suffer from abuse and neglect will often show. Children coming to school in smelly clothes, having random bruises appearing each week, looks of malnourishment, change of bruise stories, etc. are all tell-tale signs that maybe there's a bigger issue going on in the home than meets the eye. I have a passion for Social Work and working with children and adults who have been affected by alcohol and substance abuse is where I want to spend most of my time, so this book really hit me in my emotions and pulled at my heart strings. This book has opened up my eyes to see the cruelty that we face in this world and that nobody is safe, not even a small child. If nothing else, this book at least has made me want to be nicer to children and to make sure I can identify signs of abuse and neglect in children. This book makes me so much more excited to be a helper after reading it because I'm going to strive to get victims of this severe abuse out of the home and into a safe area. Also, this book makes