Child Trafficking: Telling The Story

My editor at Dutton, Margaret Woollatt, told me today of a starred review in PW for Sold by Patricia McCormick, a novel in free verse about a Nepali girl sold into sexual slavery. Sparrow, my protagonist in First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover, blogs about meeting a girl about to be trafficked, and I based her description on a disturbing encounter I had years ago in the Dubai airport. I dread and yet long to read Sold, as nothing enrages me more than the sexual exploitation of children. Thank you, Patty McCormick, for telling this story. I know the pen is mightier than the sword, but when it comes to sexual trafficking, even my give-peace-a-chance-flower-child fingers are sorely tempted to wield the latter.