Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl in Nepal. Her family is poor, and her mother sells to her to be a maid for a rich family. Sadly, like many girls in Nepal, Lakshmi is sold as a prostitute. Sold, written in free verse poetry, tells Lakshmi's tale of horror and eventual triumph. McCormick does a wonderful job of illustrating the plight of these girls without going into graphic details.

Sold deals with a topic that many parents may not want to let their children read in middle school, but it's a book I recommend to mature middle school girls or high school girls.

This book moved me. It broke my heart to know how many girls suffer from this horrible modern day slave trade. I read it during silent reading time with my students, and I actually screamed out at the end because I desperately wanted Lakshmi to be rescued. My kids all looked up in shock at me screaming, "Tell him your name. GO!" You'll have to read the book to see if she does.

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