Some bookstores are choosing not to stock Ted Dawe's award-winning Into the River.
From the New Zealand Herald:
Books For Kids owner Helen Le Heron said she found the book "unnecessarily graphic".
"It contained themes that were inappropriate for young teenagers. We have removed the books from our shelves," the Hamiltonian said.
She had contacted colleges that had bought the book from her shop and alerted them to the "explicit content" warning.
Some school librarians had since removed it from shelves until they had read it while others had restricted access to senior students, she said.
A selection of oft-challenged YA titles that, according to their website, the bookstore DOES stock: Looking for Alaska, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, The Hunger Games trilogy, Feed.
From an opinion piece at the New Zealand Herald:
Teachers and school librarians do teenagers a disservice when they point them towards books that need to shock to capture their interest. Teenagers are not shocked by the subject matter, of course. They can see worse without going to much trouble.
What might shock them is that teachers and librarians have put this stuff in front of them. Teenagers would never say so, but they do not want this sort of fare from their school any more than they would want it from their parents.
If teenagers "would never say so", I'd love to know how/why the author feels so comfortable in making such a sweeping generalization, but whatever.
One of the judges of the award, author Bernard Beckett defends the book—and the decision of the award committee—thusly:
"There's a massive difference between, 'Hey, look at this exciting world of sex and drugs and rock and roll', and 'Look at the damage being done to this young man because our society can't find a place for him to stand'. And within that context, hard-hitting material is crucial; it is what makes the book authentic, real and important."
Arcadia Books in Newmarket will not be stocking the book, and Family First has suggested that the author (and the judges) are "out to pollute the moral innocence of kids" as well as having called on the NZ Post to withdraw the award.
The author, meanwhile, says:
"I'd rather people reacted and hated it, or loved it, than people who are just bored by it."
"That's the key thing about books. You've got to grab people by the soul and give them a good shake."