{"product_id":"i-kick-and-i-fly-9781338825091","title":"I Kick and I Fly","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA 2024 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Selection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA 2024 ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project Titles Selection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"In I Kick and I Fly, Ruchira Gupta has given young readers an irresistible story, and also one that could save lives. This book is a gift.\" -- \u003cb\u003eGloria Steinem\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA propulsive social justice adventure by renowned activist and award-winning documentarian Ruchira Gupta, \u003ci\u003eI Kick and I Fly\u003c\/i\u003e is an inspiring, hopeful story of triumph about a girl in Bihar, India, who escapes being sold into the sex trade when a local hostel owner helps her to understand the value of her body through kung fu.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn the outskirts of the Red Light District in Bihar, India, fourteen-year-old Heera is living on borrowed time until her father sells her into the sex trade to help feed their family and repay his loans. It is, as she's been told, the fate of the women in her community to end up here. But watching her cousin, Mira Di, live this life day in and day out is hard enough. To live it feels like the worst fate imaginable. And after a run-in with a bully leads to her expulsion from school, it feels closer than ever.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut when a local hostel owner shows up at Heera's home with the money to repay her family's debt, Heera begins to learn that fate can change. Destiny can be disrupted. Heroics can be contagious.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt's at the local hostel for at risk girls that Heera is given a transformative opportunity: learning kung fu with the other girls. Through the practice of martial arts, she starts to understand that her body isn't a an object to be commodified and preyed upon, but a vessel through which she can protect herself and those around her. And when Heera discovers the whereabouts of her missing friend, Rosy, through a kung fu pen pal in the US, she makes the decision to embark on a daring rescue mission to New York in an attempt to save her.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA triumphant, shocking account inspired by Ruchira Gupta's experience making the Emmy-award winning documentary, \u003ci\u003eThe Selling of Innocents, \u003c\/i\u003ethis is an unforgettable story of overcoming adversity by a life-long activist who has dedicated her life to creating a world where no child is bought or sold.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRuchira Gupta is a writer, feminist campaigner, professor at New York University and founder of the anti-sex-trafficking organization, Apne Aap Women Worldwide. She won the Clinton Global Citizen award in 2009, the Sera Bangali Award in 2012 and an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism in 1996. She has helped more than twenty thousand girls and women in India exit prostitution systems. She has also edited \u003ci\u003eAs If Women Matter\u003c\/i\u003e, an anthology of Gloria Steinem's essays, and written manuals on human trafficking for the UN Office for Drugs and Crime. Ruchira divides her time between Delhi and New York. \u003ci\u003eI Kick and I Fly \u003c\/i\u003eis her debut novel.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Scholastic Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50608104800530,"sku":"9781338825091","price":13.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_cc5d4951-fa8e-4012-8fc2-278acc4d4af7.jpg?v=1732317973","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/i-kick-and-i-fly-9781338825091","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}