Patricia McCormick's Sold is a novel in verse about a young girl sold by her step-father into prostitution in India. It is also one of the most powerful books I've read in a very long time.
Lakshmi is 13 years old, living with her mother, step- father, and baby brother in a small village in Nepal. After gambling away all the family's money, her step-father sells Lakshmi into prostitution. She is then taken to Calcutta where she begins her life in a brothel.
There, she encounters not only other women and girls in a similar situation, but the children of some of them. One of the most moving scenes in the novel is when the son of one of the other prostitutes catches Lakshmi with his book, and begins to teach her Hindi and English.
Lakshmi's story is told in heart-wrenching detail, and I was actually openly crying at one point. McCormick has clearly done an amazing amount of research for this novel (actually, if you're interested, here
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