Sold by Patricia McCormick

I taught jr. high for eight years before moving up to high school.  Some of those children thought they were so grown up, but the truth is that they still have so far to go.  About a year ago, a friend recommended that I read Sold by  Patricia McCormick.  About the same time, I started learning about the fight to stop human trafficking both locally and around the world.  I was flabbergasted to say the least. I thought slavery ended in the United States after the Civil War in the 1860's.  Our country has had its racial struggles, but modern slavery crosses more lines than race.  This subject is so incredibly hidden that most people are as clueless as I was a year ago.

Sold is the story of a young girl in Nepal about the same age as the jr. high girls I taught.  Although this particular story is fiction, it could be the story of many young girls in similar countries.  Lakshmi has hopes of marriage to a local village boy and helping her family financially.  She thinks she is agreeing to go to work as a maid for a family in the city when her step-father has actually arranged something very different for Lakshmi.  The story is told in short entries that are nearly free verse poetry.  The timeline moves quickly through her experiences and will tug at the reader's heart and emotions.  There are graphic moments which are handled delicately.  Sadly, what Lakshmi goes through is not all that different from what happens to some girls in our own country.  

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, watch the local news.  You can also check out these links: 

http://www.redeemedministries.com/

http://www.traffick911.com/

http://www.polarisproject.org/index.php

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/human_trafficking/