Sold by Patricia McCormick

Sold by Patricia McCormick

McCormick, Patricia. Sold. New York: Hyperion Paperbacks. 2006.

Genre: Fiction

Lexile: Adolescent

Sold is about a young girl, Lakshmi, who is sold into sex slavery. She is tricked into going to this wonderful town where she will be a maid for a fabulous family- but instead she is sold into prostitution, her master’s name is Mumtaz. Lakshmi is told she is captive until she can repay her debt to Mumtaz. She risks her life at the end of the book but will it pay off and she will be free? Or will it be the biggest mistake of her life?

This is a powerful book about young girls being sold into sex slavery in Nepal. The book may be inappropriate for young readers as it follows a young girl through her triumphs.

This book has many qualities of high literature including: Cognitive development, personality development, and social development. We see cognitive development in this novel for adolescents because they are able to understand the relationships throughout the book and begin to make connections between the characters and their relationships. In early adolescents students tend to be more emotionally developed and through this book their emotional developments are tested. This book could be a pathway to what some of their thoughts are anxieties are and because the girl uses those around her to confide in perhaps students would be more willing to do the same. Another quality that this book has is the basis for social development in students. Students in this age are beginning to recognize conflicts and emotions in others and are beginning to learn social rules. This book dives into several social issues and how they are dealt with. Students are being prompted into tough topics to discuss and begin to develop a larger social development.

Plot- The order of events is important in this book because how she gets to the prostitution is an important leading up information that the reader would need to understand the book. The plot also follows the main character as she develops herself more.

Setting- In this story the setting is important because by using Nepal the author is sharing a large social issue in today’s world. Even though there is sex trafficking throughout the world she specifically chose to focus on Nepal. By choosing this setting it allows the reader to imagine what it is like-smells, sights, and feelings.

Theme: Personal Development- From the beginning of the book Lakshmi is a strong character and throughout the story we see her develop as a person and develop her ideals and morals. In the end we see her ideals go into place and even though there is no sure outcome of her actions she stands strong on what she believes to be right.

Mini Lesson-By using this book it could be a segway into other social issues and students could research the issues and present or write about the findings.

Enjoyment- This book is geared to older adolescents, around grade 8-9 at its earliest. There are many difficult social issues brought up and readers need to have a mature mind to deal with the issues.