Review: I Nominate Stupid Boy For Best Book Of The Year
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 5, 2013
Stupid boy was so stupid that his mum and dad didn't want him back anymore. They was so sick and tired of him that they throwed him away. It was monster day and the monster people got stupid boy. But he shouted about it and asked Mr. Ted to bring his sword so he could chop them all up, but Mr. Ted didn't because he decided Stupid Boy was bad too. So Stupid Boy ran away and then he falled off a cliff and died because he splatted on the rocks and the trolls ate him all up. The End.Each chapter in Stupid Boy, an autobiography of horrific child abuse, started with a little story like above, summarizing the events to come in the pages. This entire book is so well put together with more thought given to the reader than the reader I think realizes. The chapters are short, with mostly summarizations mixed with real dialogue. But the summarization is narrated in the voice of this eight year old and it is THAT voice, THAT boy, that compelled me to read on. When the going got tough to read, I thought, you keep going, because he was brave enough to relive this story so that you could understand and know, you owe it to him as a mother, a human even, to read every horrific word and learn all that you can. Because it is in knowing that we are empowered to change things, isn't it? And it is in feeling that we can know things so well that we won't likely forget. In this sense, the author has done a superb job in putting us in touch with the feelings we never want to feel. But I really believe it's our duty to read, know, and feel those things that are hard, and not turn away. To know the pain and suffering as intimately as those children do.This author is a man who is still struggling to survive the written abuse he tells. Those who know and understand PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) can relate. But the traumas and atrocities the children of this type of abuse endure, occurs within their own homes, among people that are supposed to love and protect them. The added horror of such a betrayal is extremely difficult for us the reader to comprehend and yet at the same time so important that we do. And by telling his entire story, we actually do begin to feel it and feeling it is good and necessary. It's not fun, it's not something we want to read, but it's something we owe the children to read and learn. We can't ignore this. We can't turn our eyes away because it's too hard to see. We have to be strong and stand up and say something. We need to care enough to make a big enough fuss about it. And the only way I know to do that is to encourage this awareness. I'll be referring this book to readers as a very small token of my dedication to help end this inhumane crime called Child Abuse.