Sold by Patricia McCormick

When Lakshmi is thirteen-years-old, the devastating rain destroys her family’s crops and her step-father informs her that she must go to the city to earn money to support her family. Lakshmi believes that she is going to work as a maid for a wealthy woman, but instead her step-father has sold her into prostitution. While she initially fights her situation, she is eventually drugged into submission by the old woman who rules the brothel. At first, Lakshmi believes that eventually she will be able to payback the money she owes and buy her freedom, however, she quickly learns that the only way she will be free is to become worthless to Mumtaz through illness or age. When Lakshmi is given the opportunity to pursue freedom, will she risk everything for the chance?

McCormick has written a horrifying story that is as gripping as it is difficult. Short, prose vignettes powerfully reveal Lakshmi’s heartbreaking story. Readers will be horrified to learn that Lakshmi’s story is not uncommon in countries such as Napal and India and that McCormick interviewed many child prostitutes while doing her research for this book. It will make most teenage girls grateful for their lives.