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Sold (National Book Award Finalist)
Contributor(s): McCormick, Patricia (Author)
ISBN: 0786851724     ISBN-13: 9780786851720
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
OUR PRICE:   $10.79  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: April 2008
Qty:
Annotation: Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small village in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells Lakshmi she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to help, Lakshmi journeys to India, only to learn the unthinkable truth; she has been sold into prostitution. An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt--then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave. Gradually, Lakshmi forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision--will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Juvenile Fiction | People & Places - Asia
- Juvenile Fiction | Girls & Women
- Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes - Sexual Abuse
Dewey: FIC
Lexile Measure: 820
Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.5" W x 8.1" (0.50 lbs) 272 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Asian
- Cultural Region - Indian
- Sex & Gender - Feminine
- Catalog Heading - Language Arts
- Curriculum Strand - Language Arts
Accelerated Reader Info
Quiz #: 109091
Reading Level: 5.0   Interest Level: Upper Grades   Point Value: 5.0
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
The powerful, poignant, bestselling National Book Award Finalist gives voice to a young girl robbed of her childhood yet determined to find the strength to triumph
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut on a mountain in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.

He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi journeys to India and arrives at Happiness House full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.

An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt-then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave.

Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her mother's words-Simply to endure is to triumph-and gradually, she forms friendships with the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new world. Then the day comes when she must make a decision-will she risk everything for a chance to reclaim her life?

Written in spare and evocative vignettes by the co-author of I Am Malala (Young Readers Edition), this powerful novel renders a world that is as unimaginable as it is real, and a girl who not only survives but triumphs.