Censored

A lot can happen in a year. What began as a citywide teacher protest quickly escalated to an oppressive silencing of any Government dissenters. In Censored, we follow one teenage girl as she tries to make sense of what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false.This YA political fiction/social issues novel carries us through one family's journey as they try to navigate a changing political landscape. Taken through the lens of a 13-year old girl, readers will better understand how suppressing freedom of speech and the media can have real effects on individuals. The protagonist starts off as a middle-class teenager concerned about her weight and the attention of her male classmates. As the political landscape changes and the Government enacts a State of Emergency, her parents are left jobless and forced to move in with her grandparents halfway across the country. Over the course of the year, the President gains additional powers and jails dissidents for seemingly trivial offenses. The situation worsens for the protagonist and her family until they are forced to flee the country in a small boat that is filled past capacity. Fortunately, they arrive safely to a new land, but must start over as they learn a new language and wait for their asylum papers to be processed.