Title: SoldAuthor: Patricia McCormick
A young adult book about the sex trade in India? Before reading Sold, I wondered how it would be possible to write honestly about what a thirteen-year-old girl, sold by her stepfather into sexual slavery would experience, while still making the book appropriate reading for a young adult audience who hasn't suffered similar horrors.
McCormick nailed it. After finishing Sold, I realized that she never once used the word "penis," never once even said "sex," but made clear both the physical and mental brutality that Lakshmi endured. Sold is exactly the kind of book that I hope my daughter reads in another half-dozen years. It's an important book which highlights a problem that, thankfully, most girls in the western world have no frame of reference to understand. A great book to add to the reading list of any budding feminist... and her parents.
1 comment:
I'm definitely reading that. I wrote a little 3 minute speech that I gave at the sub-commission for human rights at the UN (I know, long name, sounds braggy, but it has a point) about the sex slave trade and young girls. I used my examples from Cambodia for that part of the speech but it was clear how big of a problem it was in so many areas, scary and sick. I'm very interested in how she tells the story, thanks for sharing!
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