Sold by Patricia McCormick

This is not a happy book. It is hopeful, but not happy. However, I still absolutely loved it. Maybe because it is REAListic Fiction. It's an interesting genre. On one hand you know it's not real, but on the other hand you know that the story you are reading is based on things that have/are really happening. Such is the case in Sold, by Patricia McCormick. While Sold deals with some very tough issues, it is done in a very tasteful way. There are no explicit scenes or language. Lakshmi, the main character, suggests things are happening, but never actually describes the horrific details. For this reason, I think this a book that every young adult should read. Is it intense, yes. Does it make people uncomfortable, yes. But this is because Sold brings up issues that we don't know are happening, and then when we find out they are, we wish we didn't know.

This is the story of Lakshmi, a fourteen-year-old girl who lives in a remote village in Nepal. Her family is VERY poor. They live in a one-room hut, with a thatched roof and barely enough food to survive on. Her father is dead and her step-father is a complete waste of a life. But, he does something wonderful for her! He helps her get a "job" in India (the neighboring country) so she can help make money for her family. Lakshmi feels a sense of incredible pride that she could help feed her family and is only too willing to start on her journey to India to start working as a maid in a big house.

Little does Lakshmi know or understand, her step-father has sold her to a woman. This woman then sells her to a man, who then sells her to another woman, named Mumtaz. Mumtaz is the owner of a brothel, also know as a prostitution house. Lakshmi hasn't been brought to India to be a maid and make money for her family. She has been sold into the slavery market and if she ever wants to leave, she'll have to "earn" enough money before Mumtaz will let her go. Unfortunately, Mumtaz charges Lakshmi for her food, her room (it's not even a real room) and anything else Mumtaz can charge for.

As stated earlier, this is a sad book, but it is hopeful. I wanted to know why Lakshmi didn't just leave? Why no one was helping her? Why people would allow this to happen? Why people would actually sell other people? Maybe the answers weren't what I wanted, but they were there.

While I was reading, I began to get online and read about how "real" this story was. It made me sick. Every day young children are tricked into leaving their homes because neither they nor their parents have an education and they just trust people are being honest. So, they send their children off with complete strangers, and the children are more than happy to go. They don't know any better. I was even more floored when I found out that human trafficking also occurs in America.

If you are up for a dose of reality, I HIGHLY recommend this book. It does us no good to live in ignorance of what goes on around us when we have the capabilities of helping.