Hamilton, Harriet (?)-2006

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Hamilton, Harriet (?)-2006

PERSONAL:

Died January, 2006. Education: Educated in the United States, Paris, Frankfurt, and Mexico.

CAREER:

Writer, journalist, television and radio director and producer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Finalist, ForeWord magazine, Book of the Year Award, 2006, for Ribbons of the Sun.

WRITINGS:

Ribbons of the Sun, Brown Barn Books (Weston, CT), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

American writer and director Harriet Hamilton died in 2006, just months before publication of her book, Ribbons of the Sun, a work which "dramatizes the brutal facts of child trafficking through the story of one young girl," as Booklist contributor Hazel Rochman noted. Hamilton tells the true story of Rosa, a girl who grew up in an Indian village in the south of Mexico. She has dreams of one day visiting a city, and when she is twelve and the family's crops fail, she is taken to the city of Santa Maria by her father. However, this is not the trip of her dreams, for her father sells her to a family as a servant. She is sexually abused by the male head of the family she works for; made pregnant, she is cast out of the home. Rosa is so desperate that she contemplates suicide, but knows she must first find a safe place for her baby. Going to a local mission, Rosa soon turns her life around, learning job skills to see her and her baby through life and even managing to forgive her father.

Reviewers praised Hamilton for her unflinching portrayal of child abuse and exploitation. Margaret R. Tassia, writing in the School Library Journal, called the book "compelling," and further noted: "At times lyrical, the writing depicts social problems frankly, without sensationalizing or oversimplifying." Library Journal contributor Andrea Kempf similarly praised the "the narrative's simplicity."