Banned book 'fabulous' read

BANNED FOR NOW: Wanganui shop Paige's Book Gallery has removed its only copy of Ted Dawe's young adult novel from the shelves. PHOTO/BEVAN CONLEY 080915WCBRCBOOK03

Into the River is a fabulous read and it's a shame not to sell it, Paige's Book Gallery literary consultant, Rochelle Handley, says.

She reads many teenage books, and likes to know one before she recommends it.

Into the River has been banned from supply or display since last Thursday. The ban lasts until New Zealand's Film and Literature Board of Review can agree on its classification.

The young adult novel had an R14 classification until August 14, when the restriction was removed. The interim ban follows protest from Christian lobby group Family First.

Ms Handley said she wouldn't sell Into the River to a 10-year-old, because it was a young adult book and readers needed some emotional maturity. If she was selling it to a grandparent who was giving it to a teenager, she would tell them it had explicit sexual content.

The book is about a rural New Zealand boy who gets a scholarship to an all-male school in the city.

He encounters all kinds of new experiences - including the sexuality of older people, bullying and marijuana smoking.

Auckland author Ted Dawe won the top prize for it in the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards in 2013. He told the New Zealand Herald its main theme was bullying, and the lasting damage it can cause.

Ms Handley said no one took much notice of the book until moral outrage about it being nominated for the award created a buzz about it.

After that it still didn't sell well, and she thinks it had a bad rap. She liked the way it dealt with issues today's teenagers faced, and that it was set in a New Zealand readers could identify with.

"It would be a great sixth form class text, because it raises issues that are real issues in our community."

It did have explicit sexual content, but was never seedy or disgusting. And she said young people watched much more graphic things on television.

"We have got to this stage where kids can watch anything on TV. Watching people being shot is okay, but you're not allowed to read about a young boy discovering his sexuality."

People should read the book before judging it, she said.

"It makes me sad for Ted Dawe. Being an author is never easy. It won Book of the Year, but to me it didn't get the accolades it deserved."

The manager of Wanganui's Whitcoulls store was not allowed to comment on the book ban, and the manager of the Davis Library was not available yesterday.