Sold by Patricia McCormick

I highly recommend the young adult book, Sold by Patricia McCormick. Although this book is fiction, it is a jarring and horrifying representation of the child prostitution slave trade in India. The book is written in journal format, in which the main character, Lakshmi, describes the process of being sold by her stepfather to a cruel brothel owner and then becoming her slave. The most heartbreaking aspect, outside of the fact that Lakshmi has her innocence brutally ripped away against her will, is the fact that her naive nature leads her to misunderstand her fate until the grim moment that it's not possible anymore. She is forced to leave the mother and brother she loves and becomes trapped in a nightmare, from which she fears she'll never escape.

While reading this book, I couldn't help but think of the painfully gripping documentary "Born Into Brothels", which focuses on children living in the red light district in Calcutta. Both the book and the movie are a call for people in a position to help to avoid sitting idly by and speak out against this terrible crime against children. I wept as I read Sold, not only because of the terrible things Lakshmi had to endure, but also because her character represents thousands of real girls across the world, who must face the hopelessness of their fate. Somaly Mam, a woman who was forced into prostitution as a young girl, wrote a book called The Road of Lost Innocence, which is a nonfiction account of her life as a child prostitute. Today, Mam risks her own life and the lives of her family members to speak out against the sex-trafficking industry and to help young women escape the misery of the brothels. for more information about Mam and this topic, visithttp://www.somaly.org/ All of these stories mentioned above are heartbreaking, yet resound with hope and reminders to appreciate the good in our lives. If you are interested in reading Sold, it is available in the library.