Trafficked

Trafficked is a novel about a girl named Hannah. Hanna lives in Moldova, a small country near Russia. When Hannah’s parents die and her uncle goes missing, she is left to support her family. Her family is running out of money and her grandmother needs eye surgery. To help make more money, she agrees to go to America and be a nanny for a Russian family while she goes to school at night to become a doctor.

At first, the new family seems very sweet and Hannah fits right in. But after a month in America, Hannah starts to realize that everything isn’t as it seems. She hasn’t been paid, she’s not allowed to leave the house, and she can’t go to school because she has to work 16 hour days cleaning and taking care of the two small children.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten in the book.

A moment in the book that shows the personality of the main character is on the first day that Hannah cares for one of the two small children. Hannah knew she wasn’t supposed to give the little girl an ice cream bar, but somehow the little girl had convinced Hannah to give her one anyway. They were both in the kitchen enjoying the ice cream when the parents and other little kid come home. Hannah rushed to hide what she’d done; she snatched the ice cream from the little girl and threw both ice creams into the garbage. As the parents walked in, the noticed the chocolate on their daughter’s face. Everyone instantly knew what Hannah had done and she felt terrible. The mother of the children tells her daughter to hand over the chocolate, thinking that she still has it. The small girl then tells her mother that Hannah snatched it up and threw it away. Hannah gets in trouble and it shows you how sensative she is. She's afraid of messing up and everytime she does somthing wrong, she feels terrible. This pushes her to work harder and strive to be the best that she can be.

Room

 

For my summer reading project, I read the book Room. Room is about a little boy named Jack who has just turned 5 and lives with his mom. The story is about he finds out that almost everything he knows about life is wrong.

The story starts out with Jack waking up on his birthday. He's very excited about finally being 5 years old. As the story goes on, you learn Jack's daily routine. It includes screaming out of Skylight, feeding Plant, and watching one show on TV every day. To anyone reading the book, this routine may seem a little weird until you learn more about Jack's life. He's been living in a very small, one room house that he calls Room his entire life, and he's never been outside. Jack and his mom are locked in by a man they call "Old Nick". They live very simple lives and Jack loves it. But his mom doesn't.

Old Nick is a frightening man to Jack. Jack has never actually seen Old Nick because his mom puts him to bed in Wardrobe every night before he comes. Jack's mom, whose name is never really mentioned, was kidnapped by Old Nick about two years before Jack was born. She begins to tell Jack that almost everything he's seen on TV about the outside world is real. At first, Jack thinks his mom is lying, but once he sees snow and an airplane through the small hole on the cork that blocks skylight, he begins to believe that his mother is telling the truth.

Jack’s mom begins to develop a plan. They are going to pretend that Jack is very sick so that Old Nick will take him to the hospital and Jack can escape and get help. Jack doesn’t like the plan but finally agrees. At first, the plan doesn’t work. Old Nick says he won’t do anything about it. As Jack’s mom becomes more desperate, so do her plans. She eventually convinces Jack to pretend he’s dead so that Old Nick will take him away. The plan actually works this time. Jack gets a taste of the freedom he's never had and his mom is released from her seven-year prison.

At first, Jack doesn’t like the outside world, but as he gets more used to it, I believe he will find that it much better than what he had before.