Patricia Mccormick

Sold

Afsara Monzur 

Lara Engle

I'm not really sure how to review this book. It's written in a verse-like style, but I don't know that I would consider most of it to actually be verse. It's definitely not dense poetry. It's easy-to-read, with lots of space on the page. The brief vignettes keep you turning the pages, thinking, "Oh, I'll just read one or two more," making it a quick read. The content is more challenging, but despite the dire circumstances and tragic events, it somehow retains that 13-year-old optimism and sweetness at its core. The choice to tell the story from Lakshmi's perspective is this book's greatest strength. We get her hopes and dreams without having to dwell too deeply in the darkness that possesses most of the adults she encounters.

I definitely recommend Sold>, as do many of my teenage students.

I thought this book was great and I love the authors writing style. I did get to meet her and we did read this book in school and I had lots of fun talking to my classmates about my thoughts and opinions about this book. In my opinion child trafficking or sex trafficking isn’t talked about quite often and this book really brought it up a lot and I feel like from this book people can learn and help others who are going through sex trafficking right now. 

Jill Niemeier 

Captivating. Haunting. Devastating. I read it in about 2 hours and couldn't put it down. I had a few issues with it, but the storytelling was just so beautiful. I loved it.

Jeni Enjaian

This is definitely a sad book, not one to pick up on a whim. The vignette style kept the narrative from becoming oppressively heavy. Before the really horrible stuff happened the narrator pulled away giving just enough information to clue the reader into what was happening. Additionally, McCormick kept the narrative short and bittersweet. It wasn't quite happily after, as it couldn't in a book like this portrayal of a very sad reality.

Abigail F

“This affliction—hope—is so cruel and stubborn. I believe it will kill me.”

Sold by Patricia McCormick follows the story of young Lakshmi, a thirteen year old girl from Nepal. Growing up in poverty with an alcoholic stepfather who gambles away all the family’s belongings, her only dream is to live in a house with a tin roof. So, when her step-father says she must go to the city and work as a maid to make money, she is excited at the idea of making her Ama (mother) proud. 

Unfortunately, she is not going to the city to be a maid and it isn’t until she is trapped in the Happiness House that she realizes she was sold to a brothel. 

“…a zipper baring its teeth… the wincing of the mattress... but if you are lucky, or if you work hard at it, you hear nothing.”

Sold is not an easy book to read. While the chapter are all short and the story itself is written in the format of poetry than a novel, the content of the book is heart wrenching. With rape scenes, beatings, and horrible realities thousands of young girls actually face, this book is not meant for all audiences and is better suited for mature readers. 

How Laksmi stays alive and keeps hope while attempting to pay off her debt to Mamtaz is inspiring. McCormkick includes an afterword talking about the reality of the book for some women who live in a society where girls are equivalent to goats, “good as long as she gives you milk and butter. But not worth crying over when its time to make a stew.” 

Inspiring, poetic, devasting, Sold is the type of book that stays with you long after you put it down, leaving you to wonder what you would be willing to go through for your freedom.

Kelsey Mcdaniel

Patricia McCormick

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.

Sold

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