Sold by Patricia McCormick

This was a quick Young Adult read that was written in free verse on a very controversial topic. In Nepal, there is a 13-year-old girl named Lakshmi that lives the life of my girls where she lives. Here days are spent going to school and thinking about the boy she has been told she will marry. ife in Nepal, going to school and thinking of the boy she is to marry. Then her gambling-addicted stepfather sells her into prostitution in India, but tells her that she will be a house maid. Once she figures out what is going on and why she is in nice clothes instead of cleaning, she chooses to be beaten and starved before letting her guard down. She has been told that once she works off her family's debt she can leave, but soon realizes with all the expenses of food, clothes, bills, and medicine this may be an impossible feat. Along the way a young boy teaches her how to read, and another brings her tea and other small gifts. Once Americans come into the picture, she gets hopeful that she will get home to her mom and brother soon. Although it is horrifying and sometimes difficult to read into what the young girl has to say, I am thankful that it is not very detailed during the harsh times. Sadly, these types of stories are not very far from the truth. Through the interviews, research, and traveling of the author she tells the reader in an author's note that twelve thousand girls are sold purposefully, as well as unknowingly, into prostitution each year by their families.