Penguin Books Australia

As a teenager at highschool Dave Pelzer thought he had finally escaped the abuse that had wrecked his childhood – but he couldn't have been more wrong. Bullied physically at school and suffering emotional trauma as his foster family imploded around him, Dave found that adolescence was just as tough as childhood. But this time there were others to whom he could reach out – father figures who would listen patiently to his problems and offer sound advice, and friends who helped him learn that life could also be about joy as well as pain.

Dave's extraordinary memoir of how the troubled youth became a man is compassionate and brave, a tale of hope and inspiration to a new generation.