Encouraging parents to read the book with their child allow them the opportunity to facilitate discussions of the content in a way that they find developmentally appropriate. Lakshmis stepfather tells her she must leave their impoverished Nepalese village and work in the city but when Lakshmi arrives, she discovers that she is a victim of trafficking. I would strongly recommend that teachers who select this book for whole class guides reading activities first secure the consent of the parents to have their child participate. This is particularly true when the teacher may not be aware of the personal beliefs or opinions of the student's family on such topics. Additionally, the description of one girl's suicide and the Nepalese mothers drinking the juice from the ink tree so that they will cause themselves to miscarry babies that they do not want to be born only to die later, yields difficult classroom discussions. This contains explicit aberrant sexual activities including rape of a minor prostitution and explicit violence. The descriptions of the ongoing rape/violation and physical abuse suffered by the girls is emotionally disturbing and traumatic for many younger teens. RT nytopinion: To ban this book, which is based on interviews I conducted with girls in India and Nepal who had been sold into slavery, is to dishonor their real-life experiences, writes the YA author Patricia McCormick (McCormickWrites).

While the story provides an unflinching look at the crime of sex trafficking in Nepal and India - a practice that should be condemned and eradicated- the graphic nature if the narrative is inappropriate for children, pre-teens, and teens under the age of 18.

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