Patricia McCormick wrote Sold, as a tribute to a young girl who not only survives but triumphs. Thirteen year old Lakshmi lives in the mountains of Nepal with her mother, baby brother and step-father. Her family is so poor they cannot afford a tin roof like the other families in the village. Lakshmi wants to go to the city to work so that she can send money back to her family but her mother wants her to stay in school. After a horrible monsoon that washes away the crops and destroys the already tattered roof, Lakshmi's step-father says that she is to go to the city to work. Lakshmi is happy, proud that she will be able to help her family. She soon learns that her job in the city is not the maid job she thought it would be. Lakshmi's step-father has sold her into prostitution and now she is stuck in India forced to pay off the price that was paid for her. Lakshmi struggles to make it through the nightmare her life has become and dreams of the day she will be free again.
Recommended for Grades 9 and up.