Hidden Girl, by Shyima Hall

Hidden Girl: The True Story of a Modern-Day Child Slave, is an incredibly timely story, given how much attention human trafficking seems to be getting in the press lately.  And rightly so: the trials that Hall endures should never be put upon anyone, much less a child. 

Her story begins in Egypt, where she lived with a large, poor family.  The father was rarely present, and when he was, he was often abusive.  She had several brothers who touched her inappropriately.  Shyima says that to this day, she has siblings whose names she cannot remember. 

One day, she and her mother go the home of a wealthy family who employ her older sister.  They accuse the sister of stealing from them and want her fired.  However, they demand the money that the sister owes them.  Because her family cannot pay, the mother hands young Shyima over to them as a child slave.  She will work for them in repayment of the sister's debt.  She will never live with her family again.

From here, Shyima recounts the years she spent in slavery in Egypt, and then on to America where her captor family illegally smuggled her.  Only when a suspecting neighbor called the authorities was Shyima finally freed.  However, she continued to spend her teenage years with several unloving foster families and faced bullies at public school.  Once she became an adult with independence, Shyima finally discovered freedom.

Her story is well worth a read by any young adult.  She repeatedly laments how shocked she is by American teenagers who take much of their lives for granted.  Because of her delayed education, Hidden Girl is very simply written and is easily accessible to struggling readers.

I hate to offer up criticism to what is a serious story, but I cannot give this book an enthusiastic review.  My main problem is that even though the book is written with the help of author Lisa Wysocky, it doesn't often come across like it's had professional help.  Writers are often told to "show, don't tell," and the same could be offered to this book.  Hall's narrative is often repetitive, and she could have made us care for her plight more if she (or Wysocky) had really brought us in depth to her environment.  Instead, she often relies on such meager descriptions like, "I was too busy being mistreated, getting up way too early, and being yelled at."  Like I said, show, don't tell.

Still, the timeliness of this story makes it worthwhile.