The book A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer, reminded me several times of Forged by Fire by Sharon Draper. The most obvious connection being abuse. David was physically and emotionally abused by his mother and Gerald was physically abused and grew up to see his sister sexually abused. David and Gerald were also buned. David's mom held his arm on the oven burner and tried to get him to lay on it while Gerald was neglected by his mother and she left him in the house while it was on fire. Both also finally got the help of some kind adults to get the abuse to stop.