Title: Sold
Author: Patricia McCormick
Year: 2006
Genre: Realistic fiction
Age: 8th grade up
Summary: Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures like raising her pet goat and doing her schoolwork by lamplight. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid working for a wealthy family in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi undertakes the long journey to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution. (From Patricia McCormick's Official Website)
Review: This is another 'I didn't mean to read it all in one day' book. McCormick's use first person narration really connected me to Lakshmi, who tells her story in beautiful little snippets, none more than three pages. She's poor and hungry in body but happy in soul Nepal and poor and destroyed in body and soul in India. I cried for Lakshmi because she didn't know what was happening to her and was so hopeful about her future. McCormick doesn't fall into sensationalism here, only alluding to the horrors visited upon Lakshmi, never describing them in detail.
A beautifully told story about the horribly true practice of human trafficking, I would recommend this book to almost all of my 8th graders (who are the same age as Lakshmi) and all of my fellow teachers.
Author: Patricia McCormick
Year: 2006
Genre: Realistic fiction
Age: 8th grade up
Summary: Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures like raising her pet goat and doing her schoolwork by lamplight. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid working for a wealthy family in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi undertakes the long journey to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution. (From Patricia McCormick's Official Website)
Review: This is another 'I didn't mean to read it all in one day' book. McCormick's use first person narration really connected me to Lakshmi, who tells her story in beautiful little snippets, none more than three pages. She's poor and hungry in body but happy in soul Nepal and poor and destroyed in body and soul in India. I cried for Lakshmi because she didn't know what was happening to her and was so hopeful about her future. McCormick doesn't fall into sensationalism here, only alluding to the horrors visited upon Lakshmi, never describing them in detail.
A beautifully told story about the horribly true practice of human trafficking, I would recommend this book to almost all of my 8th graders (who are the same age as Lakshmi) and all of my fellow teachers.
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