Sold

Sold, by Patricia McCormick

Oy.  This one was a rough read.  Not because it wasn't well written; nor because it wasn't excellently researched.  This is heartbreaking stuff, as you can imagine: Sold tells the story of a young Nepali girl bought by a man from the city who promises her a job as a maid, and in turn sells her to a brothel.  It's easy to forget (or completely overlook the fact) that this story is modern, current, but the sex slave trade is a real and massive problem.

This is book is juvenile fiction, despite the heavy and sometimes graphic content, and it ought to be.  The sooner children learn about the world in which they live (in which young girls are still sold into prostitution, and this goes on largely unchecked), the better.