We finally met today to share our thoughts on Sold by Patricia McCormick. All of our members were moved by Lakshmi's experiences. We saw parallels between Sold and the Oscar winning movie, Slum Dog Millionaire. Some ideas and thoughts that were shared:
· Lakshmi was just a child when her stepfather sold her into prostitution.
· It was ironic that the name of the brothel was “Happiness House”.
· In the end, it was such a difficult decision for Lakshmi to leave the other girls behind.
· Some book club members found the ending frustrating and wanted to know about what happened to Lakshmi.
· Reading the prose style of writing was different and poetic.
Our next book...A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
Due to lots of craziness, our book club meeting has been postponed. We will meet to discuss Sold by Patricia McCormick on February 26, 2009 @ 3:00. If you haven't picked up a copy, come to the library to get one. It is a quick read. Sorry for the confusion! Hope to see you there!
Here is a brief summary from Booklist...
Lakshmi, 13, knows nothing about the world beyond her village shack in the Himalayas of Nepal, and when her family loses the little it has in a monsoon, she grabs a chance to work as a maid in the city so she can send money back home. What she doesn't know is that her stepfather has sold her into prostitution. She ends up in a brothel far across the border in the slums of Calcutta, locked up, beaten, starved, and drugged. In beautiful clear prose and free verse that remains true to the child's viewpoint, first-person, present-tense vignettes fill in Lakshmi's story. The brutality and cruelty are ever present ("I have been beaten here, / locked away, / violated a hundred times / and a hundred times more"), but not sensationalized.
Our next book...
