The James Logan Courier

By Yari Nieves-Rivera, Courier Entertainment Editor

In the book, Sold, by Patricia McCormick, Lakshmi is a Tibetan girl who dreams of a big city and has only recently become a woman in her culture. Her father died when she was young, so her mother had to remarry in order to take care of her daughter. Since then, she had a son, Lakshmi’s little brother, which makes ends harder to meet for them. At the age of thirteen, Lakshmi is expected to get married to a boy her age and she’s supposed to leave home, but when a terrible drought comes that destroys the family’s crops and her step-father spends away their money on gambling, her dowry has to be sold to pay rent and keep her and her little brother healthy.

Then, her step-father meets a woman who is offering to take Lakshmi to the Big City, only a myth to Lakshmi. She tells Lakshmi to call her ‘Auntie’. Then, her step-father, for some reason, gets some money from the woman, more than Lakshmi had ever seen. Lakshmi goes with her in order to go to the city, and the woman promises to send back money to her family while she works in the city.