Excerpt: 'Sold'

Jan. 31, 2007 — -- In the dead of night they emerge -- young girls hoping to make some money. They leave home looking for a better life. Instead, they wind up on the streets of major cities around the world, including the United States. More than 700,000 people are trafficked worldwide every year.

Journalist and author Patricia McCormick conducted field research on sex trafficking in Nepal and India, and wrote the novel "Sold" that draws on her research. She was shocked at how many times young girls were sold into prostitution by their own, mostly male relatives as a desperate attempt to get out of poverty.

Once in the brothels, madams often give girls birth control or force them to have abortions. Sometimes, the madams allow girls to get pregnant and raise their children in the brothel, which strengthens their ties to "the life" and makes it even harder for them to leave.

While teen trafficking in the United States may not always be as horrific as it is in Nepal in India, the concept behind it remains the same: young, vulnerable girls exploited by people they trust. McCormick offers tips to parents on how they can prevent their daughters from falling victim to teen trafficking.

McCormick's "Sold" can help inform girls about teen trafficking. The novel, written for young adults, chronicles the experience of a girl from Nepal sold into sexual slavery.

McCormick hopes the book will raise the consciusness of girls in America and help galvanize them into action.

A Tin Roof

One more rainy season and our roof will be gone, says Ama.

My mother is standing on a log ladder, inspecting the thatch, and I am on the ground, handing the laundry up to her so it can bake dry in the afternoon sun. There are no clouds in sight. No hint of rain, no chance of it, for weeks.

There is no use in telling Ama this, though. She is looking down the mountain at the rice terraces that descend, step by step, to the village below, at the neighbors' tin roofs winking cruelly back at her.