"Renting Lacy - A Story of America's Prostituted Children" by Linda Smith with Cindy Coloma

I have been reading about human trafficking for about a year. Like most hot topics, there is a broad spectrum with plenty of statistics; then there is the details that move a person to action - or at least the desire to act.

Linda Smith's previous book, From Congress to the Brothel, was eye opening for me. This book is... disturbing. Yes, disturbing, as true stories of young girls being used for pleasure and profit should be. Disturbing in a way that will not allow me to live my life the same after having this information.

Nancy Winston, a Shared Hope International National Awareness Board Member, put it this way: "Once you know, you can no longer not know!"

This book will introduce you to a world that might seem fictitious. You will learn terminology that you would like to think is only used in a Hollywood movie script. You will meet young girls whose life has been taken yet they continue to survive a brutal existence. How they got there. How it could happen to your child or your child's best friend. And perhaps most shocking, you will meet those who pay for sex and the ineffectiveness of procedures currently in place to stop the crime.

Smith and Coloma have written this book in the form of a novel which allows the reader to get to know the characters and picture the scenes. Commentary is added at the end of chapters to help the reader understand the reality of the story. This atrocity is happening in communities throughout the U.S.  The Foreward quotes a police commander as saying "the only way not to find this problem in any community is simply not to look for it."

You will see implicitly in the story and then explicitly in the Commentary:

• "Why is it in America?" 
• "How Children Get Abducted"
• "How Does It Happen?" - how are children persuaded to do what they do
• "Who Buys a Child?"
• "Who are the Children Trafficked for Sex?"
• "What's Happening in Our Legal System?"
• "Why Don't They Leave?"

The book ends with hope. Hope which comes from the story being told as well as what organizations such as Shared Hope are doing and what you can do. The final pages list "Next Steps" which call for a change in laws and a change in the general populations perspective of this crime.

If you only read one book a year, make this the book. It's 163 pages that will change the way you think each time you see the picture of a child on a missing person report or hear of a runaway. It might even cause you to truly love the children around you more.

You can receive a free copy of this book with a donation to Shared Hope International. Please, make a donation. Help prevent, rescue and restore women and children from the commercial sex trade industry.