Hi, everyone! My name is Giada and I’m a junior in high school with a love books and a passion for writing. I brought the two together to create this blog, and here’s how it happened:

My freshman year I read, Suzanne Collins’ iconic dystopian novel, The Hunger Games, and felt a deep connection to the fearless main character, Katniss Everdeen.

Soon after I finished reading the first book in the series, I fell down an online rabbit hole leading me to stumble across an article that was called something along the lines of Why The Hunger Games is Banned in These Countries. I didn’t even know what that meant. How could a book – someone’s hard work and creation be banned and withheld from peoples’ experience? 

I was then introduced to the plethora of reasons why it had been banned in countries like Thailand and Vietnam and was especially intrigued by the main reason being its use of a three-finger-solute as a symbol of protest against the corrupt government. Thailand saw it as a representation of “rejection of government actions” and similarly Vietnam had an issue with the book’s political themes, viewing it as a risk against their own government. 

It was only then that I was introduced to other books (some I had heard of, others I had not) that were also banned and challenged and they were the first thing that came to mind when my AP Language and Composition teacher introduced our year-long Passion Project. The concept was to use the project as an outlet to dedicate the entire year to something you’re passionate about. It didn’t take me long to recognize that I could use the project as a way to advocate for some of my favorite titles. And as a result, it is my pleasure to introduce: Battle of the Banned.