SOLD

It was a total impromptu purchase in the San Pedro Sula, Honduras Airport.

It wasn't a flag, hat, soccer jersey, or machete. It was a book in a tiny airport bookstore.

And it was about a girl named Lakshmi from Nepal. And it was called, Sold.

"Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures, like raising her black-and-white speckled goat, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family."

My heart was gripped on every page I read. I finished the entire book on the plane.

I knew it existed. But I never read it in a free-verse, journal-like perspective as I did that day.

The sex slave industry is haunting. It's brutal. It's very real.

1 million – Number of children exploited by the global commercial sex trade, every year.

Read Sold.

Discuss it.

Pass it along.

Then realize we live in a world full of opportunities where we need to step in and make an impact in someone's life.