Hidden Girl

November 4, 2013
Honesty and strong convictions characterize Hall’s storytelling in this disquieting memoir. Raised in the slums near Alexandria, Egypt, she doesn’t attend school, staying home to care for the household, especially four younger siblings. When an older sister steals from an employer, Shyima is sold to him to maintain the family honor. She is eight years old. For nearly five years, first in Egypt and then in California, Shyima labors from dawn until midnight to serve the needs of an extended Egyptian family. America marks a dramatic worsening of her plight: there the 10-year-old is the family’s only maid. However, America also offers freedom after someone calls the authorities about a shabby, undersize child who never goes to school. It’s a long road to something resembling “normal” in a new culture, language, and reality. Shyima is realistic about her challenges but optimistic, too. Her story holds attention without being too graphic—indeed, for some readers, there may be too little visceral communication of the horror of Shyima’s situation. Nevertheless, she commands unfailing interest, sympathy, and respect. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sharlene Martin, Martin Literary Management.

February 15, 2014
Grades 9-12 Hall was eight years old when her impoverished Egyptian parents sold her to a wealthy couple. The life of domestic slavery that followed was one of endless labor and physical and verbal abuse. Her experiences don't improve when her captors immigrate to the U.S., smuggling her in with them. Almost two years pass before her plight is discovered, and she is freed. But her difficulties don't end there. As a result of never having been educated, she is illiterate, can't speak English, and can't even tell time. Accordingly, school is an ordeal and the foster homes in which she lives are often problematic. The balance of this affecting and enlightening memoir tells the story of how she survived and, ultimately, thrived. Unfortunately, her story is not unique. She points out that there are almost 43,000 slaves in the U.S. at any given time. By giving a face to one hidden girl, Hall has given a face to many. This is an excellent book for both individual reading and classroom use. Also suggest Rosanne Hawke's Spirit of a Mountain Wolf, reviewed in this issue, for a fictionalized view of child slavery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2014
This memoir focuses on modern child-slavery smuggling as native Egyptian Hall (born Shyima Hassan) recounts how her poor family sold her at the age of eight to a family who then moved to the United States, where she was fortunate enough to be rescued by child services. Although dry and sometimes uneven, this is an important, moving story of a disturbing worldwide issue.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

February 1, 2014

Gr 7-10-Shyima Hall was eight years old when her parents sold her into slavery. Before this, she was living with them and her 10 siblings in poverty in a small town near Alexandria, Egypt. She worked tirelessly for her captors, receiving no medical care or schooling and developed a general mistrust of people. When her owners moved to the U.S., Shyima was illegally transported to California, where her bondage continued. She was forced to live in a garage and not allowed to have outside contacts. This memoir follows her experiences from her early childhood and captivity to her life after she was rescued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Teens will be interested in learning how Shyima adjusted to foster care and adoption, school, dating, working, and being a regular young adult. The book ends on an uplifting note as Shyima becomes a mother and continues working toward her goal of becoming a police officer or working for the ICE in order to save others forced into bondage. The specific details of her eye-opening account provide an excellent introduction to the terrible plight of thousands of slaves who are brought into the U.S. each year. For teachers who want to develop text-sets about child slavery and labor, combine this book with Susan Kuklin's Iqbal Masih and the Crusaders Against Child Labor (Holt, 1998); David L. Parker, Leeanne Engfer, and Robert Conrow's Stolen Dreams (Carolrhoda, 1997); and Russell Freedman's Kids at Work (Clarion, 1994).-Myra Zarnowski, City University of New York

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2013
This memoir of modern domestic slavery ends with hope and determination, as young author Hall (born Shyima El-Sayed Hassan) is "one of the fortunate 2 percent" to be freed from servitude. Shyima's childhood in Egypt ends when her parents are blackmailed into turning over their 8-year-old daughter to a wealthy couple. Every day, Shyima cleans the five-story house and the 17-car garage, "standing on a stool doing the dishes" because she's too tiny to reach the sink. When she's 10, Shyima's captors move to California, illegally trafficking her into the U.S. After two more years of hard labor and increasing ill health, a worried neighbor calls the police, and Shyima's journey into freedom begins. A chain of Muslim and Christian foster parents (some protective, others exploitative) leads her to become an anti-slavery activist. Unsurprisingly, Hall's representations of Arab and Muslim men are filtered through her appalling experiences. Though she acknowledges misogyny "is not what the Muslim faith is about," readers should expect to find depictions that hew closely to negative stereotypes. Those readers prepared to brave a dense, adult tome could move from Hall's memoir to John Bowe's Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy (2007) for a deeper look. The proximity to pain makes for a choppy narrative but also vitally draws attention to a global crisis. (Nonfiction. 13-16)

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