Sold

• Genre: Fiction; young adult, realistic
• Originally Published: 2006
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 820L; grades 9-12
• Structure/Length: 177 chapters; approx. 263 pages; 3 hours and 42 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: A teenage Nepali girl named Lakshmi is sold into sexual slavery in India and does her best to survive while planning her escape.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Sexual exploitation of a child, rape, sexual violence, drug abuse

Patricia McCormick, Author

• Bio: Lives in New York; earned an MS from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; has an MFA from the New School; worked with Malala Yousafzai to co-author I Am Malala: Young Readers Edition (2013)
• Other Works: My Brother’s Keeper (2005); Purple Heart (2009); Never Fall Down (2012)
• Awards: ALA Best Books for Young Adults (2007); Booklist Top Ten Women’s History Books for Youth (2007); National Book Award Finalist (2006); National Public Radio’s Best Books of the Year (2006)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• How Gender Affects Childhood
• Deception and Truth
• The Importance of Hope, Faith, and Friendship in Overcoming Hardship

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the social and political contexts that surround the central conflict of Lakshmi and her friends.
• Study paired texts and other resources to make connections to the text’s themes of How Gender Affects Childhood, Deception and Truth, and The Importance of Hope, Faith, and Friendship in Overcoming Hardship.