One Purse: Two Girls. Two Stories.

Threads by Ami Polonsky

​Two girls: a twelve-year-old from Illinois and a thirteen-year-old living in China.
​One purse connects them.

     Yuming, abducted and forced to sew purses in a factory outside of Beijing is desperately searching for an escape.  Along with twenty two children she has become a prisoner and a slave.  Her main source of solace is memories of her deceased grandmother. Her primary source of hope is to be reunited with her brother and return to the rice fields of her village. One day she makes a bold move, and hastily scrawls a note pleading for help. She includes the note and a precious family photo inside a purse, hoping that it will find its way into the hands of someone who can rescue her.

     Clara is haunted by memories of her adopted sister Lola, who recently died of cancer. Lola's ghost fills Clara's days and nights. One day she discovers a purse, containing a cry for help and a photo of a Chinese family at the Beijing location where she and Lola played together. Clara becomes obsessed with finding the girl in the photo, convinced that this girl will fill the emotional emptiness in her heart. She persuades her parents to make a pilgrimage to China in her sister's memory.

     Told through alternating voices, Threads follows the journey a photograph hidden inside of a Chinese purse and the two girls who are aware of its existence. Because they do not know each other, the girls' paths cross without their knowledge. The search for what is missing from their respective lives is at times harrowing and often heartbreaking. The conclusion is bittersweet. The girls never meet, but both find resolution to painful circumstances and are able to move forward with their lives. 

     Readers will find several connecting threads and themes woven throughout Ami Polonsky's thoughtful and poignant book.

Followup Discussion

While reading this book, I was horrified to see the "Made in China" label inside items of clothing in my closet. I immediately wondered about who had created these things. What it indeed a child?
​This book offers opportunities to research the complexities child labor throughout the world.  Young readers may want to identify countries where the exploitation of young children exists.  They may want to identify steps taken to protect young children throughout the world working in sweatshops.