What else could you ever need?
The given theme for this week was "Good and Evil," which is a fantastic choice because it opens up a broad range of stories. My choice for this week was a book called Trafficked by Kim Purcell. I was intrigued by the description on the inside cover; this book is about a girl from Moldova who comes to America for a promise of a better life as a nanny. However, both the way she comes to this country and her experience here are horrifyingly real representations of the evil that people can do to those without power.
Hannah is placed with a family that lives in American but comes from Russia. She is meant to be the nanny of two children while the father works and the mother studies to become a doctor. The more time she spends, the more she learns about what's expected of her. For instance, she must keep the house immaculate according to the mother (Lillian)'s extremely neurotic standards. Any minor flaw results in even more work. Lillian hates to be disturbed in any way, so Hannah must add childcare in to her expected duties. Additionally, Lillian is obsessively jealous of he husband, Serge. She forbids Hannah from having any interaction with Sergey whatsoever, and scrutinizes her every move continuously. That turns into a problem once it becomes clear that Sergey has a special interest in Hannah. No matter what she does, Lillian finds a reason to hate her. On top of juggling all this, Hannah has not been paid, has been unable to communicate with her family in any way, and has ultimately been forbidden to leave the house, leaving her completely dependent upon Lillian and Sergey for everything. I don't want to give too much away, but I think this book (while certainly a difficult read) would be a good chance for high school students to confront the hard truths about our world. Human trafficking is a real problem today, and students need to know about real problems. It might be a hard sell because there are some sexual and violent elements to the book, but any book addressing this topic in a realistic fashion has to include those themes. At some point, we have to trust that our students can handle things, and I think the overall lesson on human trafficking and why it needs to be stopped is more important than coddling high school students with easier reads.
1 Comment
4/18/2015 03:44:25 am
Wow. I'm intrigued to read this. Human trafficking certainly is today's focus of human rights violation, and I have never been too involved in them. But perhaps this novel could give me insight on something I know so little about. We may live in a time where we want to believe such atrocities exist only in the past, but novels like this might help readers consider the issue of human trafficking in today's world. Thank you for suggesting this read.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AngelicaLaughter and literature are two of my favorite things, and I consider them to be crucial parts of my life. This blog is designed to spread life, laughter, and literature to anyone and everyone who needs them most. Photo by Tim Geers
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ Other Awesome BlogsArchives
April 2015
Categories |