Dandan Zhao Zhao itibaren Mt Hope, OH, USA itibaren Mt Hope, OH, USA

Head to your trusty thesaurus when you're trying to describe this book because you'll need plenty of adjectives to express just how excellent it is. This story of a seven-year-old indigenous girl whose parents allow her to be hired out as a servant to another family in Ecuador is heart-rending and riveting. Although Virginia has ambitions for the future and has been assured that she can visit her family each month, that never happens. Over time, she loses her language and cultural connections as she lives with the mestizo couple. The wife is verbally and physically abusive and bullies Virginia in all sorts of ways while the husband tries to protect her. Sadly, in the end, he, too, betrays her in his own fashion. Readers are sure to draw inspiration from Virginia's determination to survive and thrive eventually and her secret efforts at educating herself once she realizes that literacy and education are keys to a better future. Once Virginia is able to escape from her life of servitude, she is completely lost and feels caught between two cultures, ashamed of one, not really a part of the other. I loved Virginia's personality, which shines through the pages because of the honest, exquisite writing that makes her seem like someone readers would like to know. The book explores important issues through her own struggles to figure out exactly where she belongs.