Author: Peggy Kern

Release Date: March 10th, 2015

Publisher:Balzer + Bray
Pages: 208 pages

            This book isn’t for the weak of heart. Little Peach is graphic, brutal, and painstakingly honest.  Peggy Kern didn’t hold much back in her writing when depicting the harsh conditions children dealing with child prostitution are going through.  I think that’s why I was hesitant to begin this book.  I knew right away it was going to be dark from the way the story started off and I had a feeling it wasn’t going to get much better.

            I don’t mean to scare anyone away with this review, because in all honesty one of the only reasons I didn’t give up on this book is that I respect the author so much for writing this the way she did.  Peggy Kern didn’t sugarcoat one aspect of what these children are going through, which is how it needs to be done. I believe many people are ignorant as to how bad this situation has gotten in the United States, especially in just the last few years alone, and we need to see some change.  Little Peach is one of those books that will bring about change through awareness, and I hope everyone has a chance to read this no matter what age you are. 

            Little Peach starts off with a backstory on the home life of the main character, Michelle.  I thought the inclusion of this in the book was crucial to portraying the circumstances that lead to children running away from home and getting caught up in prostitution at such a young age.  Personally, when I started reading this book I knew very little about the subject matter and had a hard time wrapping my brain around the idea that some children willing choose this type of life.  As I started reading it though, I started to understand the message that was being portrayed about children in this situation.  I think Peggy was trying to show that circumstances force children into these situations.  Teenagers like Michelle who are raised in a bad home environment tend to run away, thinking they’ve escaped danger.  Once they leave though, they have no one to depend on and have no money to get by.  Since most of the parents won’t take them back, these children are desperate.  So when a guy like Devon shows up, giving Michelle food and clothes and promising to take her somewhere safe, she has little choice in the matter since she has no other options.

            As far as dislikes go, I will say some of the scenes with Devon were pretty descriptive and I had a hard time reading them.  Although I think Peggy Kern wrote it with this intent in mind so that the reader could fully understand just how bad life is for these children like Devon, I still had a hard time getting through these sections of the book.  For YA I thought some of the scenes were a little too graphic and that was one of the few gripes I had about the book.

            Other than that though, I am so thankful I received an ARC of this book to review.  It’s not likely that I would have read this book otherwise, because it’s not the type of book I typically gravitate towards.  I think stepping outside of your reading comfort zone from time to time is a good thing though.  It’s very seldom that I end a book and do some research as a result of what I’ve read.  This was one of those special circumstances.  I spent hours reading up on this epidemic and how quickly it’s worsened in the last few years alone.  Little Peach is one of those books that just cuts you to the core.  I remember reading a review prior to picking this ARC of the book up that said how eye-opening it was for the reader, and I’m going to second that thought.  All I can say is that I hope this book has the same effect it had on me, for everyone who picks it up, and if we all knew more about the terrible things going on in the cities around us, maybe we would be one step closer to working to change those things. 

 

            Emily