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Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade — and How We Can Fight It

Whether the victims are teenage soldier-slaves in Uganda, entire families forced to work in South Asian factories without pay or child prostitutes in Thailand, human trafficking enslaves 27 million people around the world and generates $30 billion annually. At least half of the victims are children.

The U.S. is not immune. The FBI believes that more than 100,000 people are enslaved in the U.S., with an additional 30,000 shipped across state borders and transported to other countries annually. Profits in human trafficking are estimated at $9.5 billion per year and rising, third only to illegal drug sales and secret arms trading.

Attorneys from the Department of Justice have prosecuted traffickers in 91 U.S. cities and uncovered human trafficking in nearly every state, revealing victims who have been kidnapped for domestic or sexual chores, coerced to remain in sweat shops and restaurants, and enrolled in traveling religious choirs for the profit of their pastor/director.

Such staggering statistics are only the beginning of what lies in store for readers in "Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade — and How We Can Fight It" by award-winning journalist David Batstone (HarperCollins; $15).

Filled with victims' stories, reformers' struggles, political trends and opportunities for individual involvement, "Not for Sale" is a literary spark capable of igniting real change in the fight against human trafficking. Fascinating, well-written and readable, the book also includes an extensive list of Web sites, resources and organizations that are making a difference.

The magnitude of "Not for Sale" is impossible to ignore. As Florida activist Anna Rodriguez states: "Human trafficking can only work if the victims remain invisible to the public eye. We have to remove the veil of ignorance."

Adapted from: Jo Ellen Heil, "Literary Happenings: Book details human trafficking in world." Ventura Country Star. 18 November 2007.