🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Dave Pelzer
Author Dave Pelzer was born December 29, 1960 in San Francisco, California, and is the second of five boys. He was raised in Daly City, California. At the age of twelve, he was placed in foster care, due to the beatings he received from his mom. His instructors stepped in on March 5, 1973. At the age of eighteen, he joined US Air Force in the year 1979 and served in the Gulf War. During the 1996 Summer Olympics torch relay, he was a torch carrier. In a lot of his work, he talks about his childhood, and how his alcoholic mom abused him from the ages of four to twelve. During the eighties, he got married to Patsy (which is a pseudonym), his first wife, and had a son with her. They would eventually divorce, and he would marry his editor, Marsha.
All Book Series by Dave Pelzer
A Child Called: One Child's Courage to Survive
Series opener · book 1 of 7 · published 1995
The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family
Book 2 of 7 · published 1997
A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness
Book 3 of 7 · published 1999
Too Close to Me: The Middle-Aged Consequences of Revealing a Child Called It
Book 6 of 7 · published 2014
Help Yourself: Finding Hope, Courage, And Happiness
Series opener · book 1 of 4 · published 2000
Help Yourself for Teens: Real-Life Advice for Real-Life Challenges
Book 3 of 4 · published 2005
Moving Forward: Taking the Lead in Your Life
Latest in the series · book 4 of 4 · published 2008
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Dave Pelzer?
Author Dave Pelzer was born December 29, 1960 in San Francisco, California, and is the second of five boys. He was raised in Daly City, California. At the age of twelve, he was placed in foster care, due to the beatings he received from his mom.
Which Dave Pelzer series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Self-Help series, the earliest of Dave Pelzer's multi-book series: it opens with Help Yourself: Finding Hope, Courage, And Happiness (2000) and runs to 4 books across 2000–2008, ending with Moving Forward: Taking the Lead in Your Life (2008).
How many books has Dave Pelzer written?
Dave Pelzer has 11 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1995 and 2023. 4 of them belong to 1 named series — the largest being the Self-Help series with 4 books — and 7 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Dave Pelzer's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Dave Pelzer's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Self-Help (2000–2008, 4 books).
How are Dave Pelzer's books organised into series?
This guide splits Dave Pelzer's 11 books into 1 named series and 7 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Self-Help (4 books, 2000–2008).