Saving Bobbi by Pam Louwagie

Saving Bobbi, Pam Louwagie. Minneapolis: Star Tribune Media Company LLC, 2013. e-book, 64 pps.


The epilogue of Saving Bobbi tells you what to do if you suspect that a child is a victim of sex trafficking. There are also warning signs to watch out for, what pimps do, and suggested websites as well as other books to read and a video. Anyone who is interested in the problem of selling children [including teens as well as younger children] for commercial sex enterprises would do well to look up the resources listed in the epilogue.

Bobbi Larson's story about what happened to her as a teen also illustrates what a child sex trafficking victim may go through emotionally as she or he embarks on the journey of recovery. She was eighteen at the time that Pam Louwagie began interviewing Bobbi and others involved in her plight. 

sapphoq reviews says: Child sex trafficking is not limited to large cities. Bobbi Larson is from a small town in Minnesota. Saving Bobbi relates some of what happened to a teen and her struggle to get out. E-book profits are donated to MN Girls Are Not For Sale campaign. A short read which is especially valuable in illustrating how perps target their prey.

Victor LaValle, The Ecstatic

Victor LaValle, The Ecstatic. New York: Crown Publishers, 2002.
Trade paperback, 276 pps.

The Ecstatic is a different kind of book. The narrator is a fat, black, and
crazy college drop-out named Anthony who comes home to his mother who
had traded Haldol (registered trademark, no copyright infringement
intended) in for thin living via vegetarianism, his 13 year old sister
Niasase who fought viciously with his mother and also entered beauty
pageants, and his feisty 93 year grandmother who did not hesitate to
call the cops on either her daughter or her grandaughter. Actually,
Anthony doesn't come home. Urged on by his younger sister, all
three family members show up at his rented room in Ithaca to find
that Anthony is not mentally well. Instead of admission to the nearest
nut ward, Anthony is installed in the family basement and watched
over until once again he becomes an impaired but functioning member
of society.

There is sex in the book. Anthony picks up Lorraine, a fat woman with
ambition on the subway and there is a brief two week interlude of failed
love. Niasase also has her day in a movie theater, much to Anthony's
horror. Besides sex, there is the neighborhood loan shark and a preacher.
The preacher, Uncle Armes, is responsible for the beauty pageant held in
small town Lumpkin, Virginia for teen girls who are virginal and have
allegedly fallen upon hard times. Naisase wins the hearts of the audience
by declaring that she and her grandmother-- strapped to Naisase's back
due to a bruised hip-- are both "orphaned." Anthony finds out that Uncle
Armes is a fraud. In return for his knowledge, Uncle Armes offers to allow
Naisase to win the pageant if Anthony opens the door to some protesters
outside the auditorium. Anthony agrees and gets hated for it later on.

Between a flooded hotel room and a pack of neighborhood dogs intent upon
biting whoever they can; between Mom's burgeoning collection of dog
statuary and Anthony's job cleaning up moldy abestos; between the ill-fated
barbecue and the ill-fated visit to the local fat clinic, there is much laughter
in this book. Yet the laughter rings hollow when we consider the underpinnings.
Still, this is a worthwhile book for those who like offbeat books about folks
who are not typical heroes. I enjoyed it immensely, although not enough for
a re-reading. Recommended for the offbeat reader.

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