Exceptional cross-cultural story! An excellent read for middle grade book club or classroom read. Lots to connect with a wide range of curricula.

Thirteen year old Yuming is a girl who lives in a rural village in China. Her older brother has left for the city to find work, and Yuming doesn't want any more than see him again. One day she is kidnapped by a man, who puts her in a bus with other children.
Their destination is a factory, which is actually more an illegal sweatshop on the outskirts of Beijing, where the children are forced to sew purses together. Yuming is stuck in the factory where she has to live in poor living conditions with the others. Not allowed to go outside, working long days under the tyranny of factory owner Mr. Zhang. She makes some friends though and together they sew a secret little plan to escape. But beforehand, Yumming is so desparate that she writes a plea for help on a small piece of paper, that she puts in one of the finished purses. That purse lands in a containter that is shipped to the USA, where it lands in a department store.

Twelve year-old Clara lives in the United States. She is still in grief of her twin sister Lola who passed away a year earlier. Lola was adopted from China, and Clara misses her more and more, and sometimes she just imagines seeing Lola, who whispers funny things in her ear. One day she goes on a little shopping trip with her best friends, and buys a new purse. Inside she finds a litle piece of paper, with a heartbreaking plea for help:
To whom it may concern, please, we need help!! The note explains that the girl, Yuming who wrote it was kidnapped and the kids are hold against their will to make purses.
After that, Clara can't stop thinking about Yumming, and wonders how she could help or save her. With the help of her dad, they try to get help from the Chinese embassy, but there aren't of much help. Later on, Clara and her parents travel to China to remember Lola, but Clara has another secret mission: to find and help Yumming.

But Yuming has already escaped from the factory with her friends. The story changes in pov from Yuming to Clara. The strongest part of this book is the beginning and the middle part of the story. This is where both Yuming and Clara go on a journey. As a reader, I expected and was anticipating the moment Yuming and Clara would meet. But hey, why didn't that happen? The author chose to not let the characters meet. At some points though they are in the same area and see each other, not knowing who the other is.
Beside this tiny dissapointment it was especially Yuming's character that stood out and was the most prominent. The succesful escape from the factory and the journey that follows with her friends is a thrilling one, especially because in the first part they are being followed by Mr. Zhang, who is cruel and destinated to find them.

The story has a few loose threads, but overall I enjoyed reading it.

Threads is a lovely book that explores separation and grieving, and unexpected connections. It focuses on Clara and Yuming as their lives become unexpectedly intertwined.

Both Clara and Yuming are dealing with substantial life changes after the deaths of family members. Their narratives explore how their loved ones are permanently interwoven into their lives despite death, separated but inseparable. Clara's story focuses on her grieving process, while Yuming's story is even more complicated. Yuming is left without a caregiver and subsequently kidnapped and forced into child labor in a factory, her story not only explores her grieving process, but also her will to survive as she develops new meaningful relationships.

While Threads touches on the horrible conditions of factory workers and other social problems, the book doesn't explore the concepts in much depth. Threads is more focused on Clara's and Yuming's journeys and character growth rather than being a harangue denouncing consumerism and exploitive labor. But this is the beauty of fiction, it is meant to be about people and Threads is very much about Clara and Yuming. Fiction for young people should introduce ideas and problems, not lecture, then young people can lead the conversation with parents or educators to find out more when they are curious and ready.

Clara and her parents are still trying to cope with the death of sister and daughter, Lola, from leukemia. Clara and Lola were very close in age, and Lola was adopted from China. Clara finds it hard to connect with friends and get back to her daily routine, but while on a disastrous trip to the mall, finds a note in a purse. It, along with a picture of a family, is from Yuming, a girl who has been kidnapped and force to work in a purse factory in China. Clara's parents help her turn the information over to the Chinese consulate, but Clara becomes obsessed with traveling to China with the idea of locating the factory and bringing Yuming home with her. Her parents had been planning a trip to China to take some of Lola's ashes as a way to help with closure. Even though it is a financial hardship, the family takes off with a few day's notice, and soon Clara is putting herself in danger to try to find Lola. Alternating chapters deal with Yuming's harrowing experiences from her perspective, which include escaping from the factory with a couple of other children.

The ending of this is realistic rather than happily coincidental, and the travel scenes at the Great Wall of China gives and in Beijing, as well as the attractive cover, give this book extra appeal.

Like Brian's Lucky T, this book is a little far fetched but rather interesting. Yuming's plight is fascinating-- a girl from a poor but hardworking family is kidnapped from a local park and kept locked up in a factory to make purses. This is certainly an important story that needs to be brought to the attention of young readers in the U.S., and this book, like Schroeder's Saraswati's Way or D'Adamo's Iqbal, is a good way to do this, since it contrasts Clara's life with that of Yuming's.

This also is on trend for the level of sadness found in middle grade literature. As in Shang's What Home Looks Like Now or Appelt's Maybe a Fox, Clara is struggling with her sister's death and working out her own way to move forward.