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Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

Art as Advocacy

Students will advocate for an issue important to them through poetry.

McCormick writes this novel-in-verse as a way to advocate for the end of human trafficking and child sex slavery. Now it is your turn to advocate for an issue that is important to you through poetry.

• Choose a human rights issue that is important to you. Consider using this list from the United Nations to help you get started.
• Read more about your issue. What are the key factors? Who is most harmed? What challenges are there in stopping this issue from happening?
• Craft a poem that captures the emotional toll your issue takes on the people it affects. Consider using a poem from the book as a model for what your poem might look like.

Then, share your poems with the class. Consider in a discussion afterwards why this form of advocacy may be effective in creating change.

Teaching Suggestion: Consider sharing these poems in a gallery walk or other non-performance structure. This may allow students some distance from challenging topics as they can go at their own pace and take breaks as needed. You may also consider assigning issues so that there is a variety represented in class.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who struggle with creative writing, consider providing a poem scaffold or traditional structure for them to use. They may consider an acrostic poem or a haiku to get started. 

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Consider the moment that the stepfather trades for Lakshmi.

• Do you believe that her stepfather knew she was being trafficked into sex slavery? (topic sentence)
• In the body of your essay, complete a close reading of “A Trade” in order to support your answer to the question. Consider both what is said and what you already know about the stepfather from previous poems.
• Then, in your conclusion, connect your argument to the theme of Deception and Truth. 

2. Consider the author’s choice to structure of the novel as a series of poems.

• How does the form of the novel help the author tell Lakshmi’s story? (topic sentence)
• In the body of your essay, use at least three pieces of evidence to support your answer. Consider both what is said and what is unsaid in this writing style.
• Then, in your conclusion, suggest how this novel might have been different if the author had written it in a traditional narrative style.

3. Consider Ama’s advice: “Simply to endure is to triumph.”

• How is Lakshmi able to endure her time at Happiness House? (topic sentence)
• In the body of your essay, cite multiple examples from the text of the things, people, or moments that help Lakshmi endure her pain and torment.
• Then, in your concluding sentence or sentences, connect to the theme of The Importance of Hope, Faith, and Friendship in Overcoming Hardship.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Consider Lakshmi’s journey from the mountain to the brothel. How do the people around her take advantage of her innocence? How do the half-truths they give her help them move her through their system? In your answer, cite three moments from the text where Lakshmi’s perception of this transaction is not accurate. As you compose your essay, refer back to the theme of Deception and Truth to support your answer.

2. Despite the age difference, the David Beckham Boy is designed to present an alternative childhood experience to Lakshmi’s. Compare and contrast how these two children experience childhood. What elements of childhood are they allowed to enjoy? What responsibilities do they have? Using at least three pieces of evidence from the text, highlight how their experiences differ, tying back to the theme of How Gender Affects Childhood throughout.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-book review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Why does the author repeat the word “maybe” so often throughout the first section?

A) To show how many options Lakshmi and her mother have

B) To emphasize that their dreams will likely never come true

C) To highlight the difference between city and village life

D) To improve the reader’s opinion of the step-father

2. What do the descriptive details about the city tell us about Lakshmi’s character?

A) She is too young to understand the world.

B) She has been to cities before.

C) She is observant and intelligent beyond her years.

D) She is trying to remember every single thing she sees.

3. What do the people in the village use to mark time?

A) A traditional European calendar

B) Religious holidays

C) Seasons

D) Children

4. Which theme is best connected to the advice Lakshmi gets after getting her “first blood”?

A) How Gender Affects Childhood

B) Deception and Truth

C) The Importance of Hope, Faith, and Friendship in Overcoming Hardship

D) The Kindness of Strangers

5. What does Lakshmi mean when she says “I do the calculations. And realize I am already buried alive”?

A) She will never be able to pay off her debt to Mumtaz.

B) Her dowry will never be enough to marry the goat boy.

C) The loss of their rice in the mudslide is more than they own.

D) Mumtaz has already put her in a hole as punishment.

6. Which character is known for having a tough and fiery exterior but a kind heart?

A) Anita

B) Monica

C) Mumtaz

D) Shahanna

7. Which best describes the relationship between Lakshmi and Harish?

A) They share a flirtatious crush on one another.

B) They are betrothed to be married.

C) Harish is one of Lakshmi’s repeat customers.

D) They are like school friends.

8. Which of the following does the American NOT promise Lakshmi if she leaves with him in the chapter “A Strange Customer”?

A) Clean clothes

B) A life free from sex work

C) Good food

D) A trip home

9. What realization makes Lakshmi feel as though “everything I’ve done here…was for nothing”?

A) She ends up pregnant with a daughter.

B) Mumtaz tells her she has 5 more years to work.

C) Her family isn’t getting any of her money.

D) Her friends don’t really like her.

10. What does it mean that Lakshmi is “afflicted” with hope?

A) She feels pain because she continues to hope for a better future.

B) She is physically ill and there is no other medical cure to help.

C) She was in trouble with Mumtaz because the hope made her happy.

D) She was given a token that represented hope to keep at all times.

11. Why won’t Anita leave with Lakshmi at the end of the novel?

A) She doesn’t want to leave.

B) She knows she is close to making enough to leave anyway.

C) She is scared.

D) She still believes the lies she’s been told about the Americans.

12. Which trait does Lakshmi demonstrate throughout the book?

A) Determination

B) Fear

C) Selflessness

D) Harshness

13. Which of the following best describes a theme demonstrated by Lakshmi’s rescue at the end of the book?

A) Girls must help themselves.

B) Trafficking is a problem that everyone needs to work together to solve.

C) It only takes one person to change a problem into a solution.

D) Only Americans can solve human trafficking.

14. What type of figurative language is used in the following quote: “...marveling at this pain, a thing so formidable it has color and shape. Fantastic red, then yellow, starbursts of agony”?

A) Metaphor

B) Simile

C) Imagery

D) Personification

15. Which quote best embodies the theme of The Importance of Hope, Faith, and Friendship in Overcoming Hardship?

A) “Only a fool would keep waiting after five days.”

B) “A new girl is sleeping in her bed, but I take no notice of her.”

C) “I am alone to consider an odd and somewhat sour feeling: disappointment that the man did not choose me.”

D) “Even if she does run off again, no one will help her.”

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. How has Lakshmi changed from the beginning to the end of the book in terms of trusting others?

2. What do the sweets and tea in the brothel represent?