Hidden: the true story of a modern-day child slave by Shyima Hall with Lisa Wysocky

Shyima Hassan was born into a poor Egyptian family, one of eleven children.  Desperately poor, her parents send one of her older sisters to work as a servant for a wealthy Cairo family.  When the sister steals from them, she's fired.  In order to regain the Hassan family honor and to reimburse the employers, Shyima's parents sell her to them.  Only eight years old, Shyima is torn from her home and family and forced to work 18 hour days, 7 days a week, for a pittance. She's regularly subjected to verbal and  physical abuse. Roughly two years later, her captors decide to move to the United States and bring her along as their only servant.  By the age of ten, Shyima is a slave-- an illegal immigrant with falsified papers, sleeping in the family's garage and doing all the cleaning, laundry, cooking and child care.

Unicef   estimates that 50% of  victims of human trafficking globally are children. In the US, roughly 27% of known trafficking victims  who have been identified are children.   What this book does is describe what slavery or involuntary servitude can mean to a child.  Not only is Shyima subjected to inhuman living conditions and exhausting labor, she is denied any chance to socialize with other children,  to receive an education, or to even learn English so she can communicate her need for help.  Worse, she has to live every day knowing her parents abandoned her.

Shyima's story is both shocking and inspirational.  Now a young woman, Shyima speaks honestly of her difficulties in California's foster care system,  her anger at her captors, and the challenges of finally getting an education.  She also praises the immigration service and social workers who stood up for her.  She now speaks to various law enforcement groups on how to reassure child victims of trafficking and adds advice for all of us on how to spot possible victims--by their demeanor, clothing, and what role they appear to be playing in a family.  Useful, enlightening and timely.