Dime by E.R. Frank

Dime has nowhere to go on a bitterly cold day when a local prostitute offers her a warm and seemingly safe haven.  Feeling she has little choice, Dime is taken in by a pimp and made to feel loved, special, and like part of the family.  Playing with literary devices like personification, Dime narrates her story by imagining the voices of characters like Greed and Sex.  Older teens looking for gritty, urban, realistic fiction will read this suspenseful tale with interest.  Frank succeeds in creating complex characters readers will empathize with and painting a nuanced, disturbing portrait of a pimp who has mastered the psychology of manipulation in order to minimize his need to use drugs and physical violence to control the young women and children he sexually exploits. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Click here for a discussion guide from the publisher.

Frank, E. R.  Dime.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015.  Print.

The Lure by Lynne Ewing

Fierce and independent Blaise finds herself feeling torn.  Pulled between conflicting loyalties, her painful past and her dreams for the future; self-preservation and sacrifice,  Blaise has a lot to negotiate.  Growing up in a dangerous neighborhood ruled by Trek, the leader of Core 9, Blaise and her friends see a world of limited options and tragically short futures.  Surrounded by violence, they make decisions for today, not tomorrow.  With every day a struggle to survive, can they find a way to reclaim control over their lives?

The Lure offers a lot of action for readers looking for scenes of gritty street life.  Teachers and counselors may want to know that the book discusses sexual exploitation and includes gun and knife fights. --Regan Schwartz

Ewing, Lynne.  The Lure.  New York: Balzer + Bray, 2014. Print.

Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets, One Helping Hand at a Time by Carissa Phelps

When Carissa Phelps was just twelve years old, she was kidnapped by a pimp. This is the introduction she gives herself, later on, each time she finds herself telling her story to a new group of people. Carissa, who is now an attorney and a youth advocate, has written down her story in this memoir and it’s an inspirational ride. Her teen years were turbulent; she spent most of them running from one dangerous situation to the next. Placed in group home after group home, spending time in juvenile hall and alternative school programs, the author reflects often on the adults she met along the way who believed in her and gave her courage. Students might relate to her history of emotional and sexual abuse, but they will absolutely be able to connect with her time spent in and out of group homes and juvenile hall. I am often asked by students for books about “real people who had it rough, but made it out in the end,” and this book fits that description perfectly. Carissa’s story demonstrates that anything is possible with the support of a few caring individuals and a lot of determination. --Anja Kennedy

Phelps, Carissa, with Larkin Warren.  Runaway Girl: Escaping Life on the Streets, One Helping Hand at a Time.  New York: Viking-Penguin, 2012.  Print.

My Book of Life by Angel by Martine Leavitt

Angel’s been running away from home ever since her mom died, but she usually only goes so far as the mall before she returns home or the police pick her up for shoplifting.  After Angel is seduced by an ambitious pimp who feeds her addictive drugs, Angel’s distraught father makes the grave mistake of telling Angel not to come home until she cleans up her act.  Call, a pimp remarkable for his intent to lead a grassroots effort to legalize prostitution, seizes the the opportunity to take over Angel’s life and move her into downtown Vancouver. Initially terrorized by Call, Angel eventually becomes preoccupied with protecting a younger girl from the life Call has given her and fighting the attendant drug addiction.  Told in haunting verse, the end of the book roots Leavitt’s fiction in the real-life disappearances of forty-nine women.  School librarians will want to know that the depiction of minors sexually abused by adults makes this book appropriate for more emotionally mature audiences.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Macmillian offers a discussion guide here.  Click here to read School Library Journal’s interview with author Martine Leavitt.

Leavitt, Martine.  My Book of Life by Angel.  New York:  Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2012. 

Almost Home by Jessica Blank

Elly is twelve and too terrified to tell anyone that her step-brother rapes her almost every night.  After her peers mercilessly bully her and assault her one day after school, she is rescued by a mysterious teen who teaches her how to dumpster dive and sleep on pavement.  Elly crosses paths with similarly traumatized and presently homeless teens and Blank’s narrative switches narrators each time a new chapter begins.  This gritty young adult novel, set in L.A., will be too much for some, and all too familiar for others.  Almost Home can be viewed as a cautionary tale that ultimately conveys that leaving danger does not always mean finding safety.   School librarians will want to be aware that this unblinking depiction of teen homelessness includes sexual exploitation, rape, and drug abuse.  Recommended for independent reading for older teens. --Jessica Fenster-Sparber

Blank, Jessica.  Almost Home.  New York: Hyperion, 2007. Print.

Hyperion has published a discussion guide authored by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer which includes discussion questions, project ideas, and a short interview with the author.  Access it here.

Charmed by Carrie Mac

Things are tough for Izzy.  Her mom is working thousands of miles away; she is left at home with Rob the Slob, her mother’s rude, disgusting boyfriend; and her best friend refuses to grow up.  But things seem to be turning around when Cody Dillon, gorgeous high school drop-out, starts paying her serious attention.  Soon Izzy is tangled up in Cody’s non-stop party world, and unknowingly racking up debts she’s expected to repay.  

Charmed was recommended to me by a student who picked it up, pointed to the cover, and said, “This right here.  This is the book.”  Many students come looking for books about girls in prostitution, and Charmed fits the bill. This offering from Canadian publisher Orca Soundings is a high interest/low level reader with an enticing cover and accessible prose.  Facts of Canadian life might give urban American readers pause, but for patrons looking for an accessible and straightforward story on prostitution, Charmed is a perfect fit. --Regan Schwartz

Sold by Patricia McCormick

Lakshmi has spent all of her thirteen years in her small village in the mountains of Nepal, working hard and trying to make the best of things despite her thoughtless, gambling step-father. But when the family loses what little they have in a monsoon, her stepfather’s solution is to sell Lakshmi into prostitution. Thinking she is going to the city to work as a maid, Lakshmi ends up captive in a brothel in Calcutta, told she must earn her way free.

Told in captivatingly sparse free-verse, Lakshmi’s story unfolds in a series of powerful vignettes. Through Lakshmi the reader meets a cast of richly detailed supporting characters, who create a vivid world where Lakshmi’s struggle for freedom and justice comes to life.

Sold is a very intense look at the realities of child sex trafficking. While McCormick deals very sensitively and honestly with an incredibly difficult and brutal topic, teachers and librarians may still want to recommend this book to mature readers. -- Regan Schwartz

McCormick, Patricia. Sold. New York: Hyperion, 2006.