Christian group gets award winning kids book banned in NZ

[Tolpuddle Martyr]

Ted Dawe's Into the River, a book aimed at a teen audience, has been banned by the Film & Literature Review Board. The ban came at the behest of conservative Christian lobby Family First but it's not just banned for teenagers. Booksellers are forbidden from selling it to anybody and if you own a copy NZ law says you can't share it with your friends!

Who dug up the corpse of Mary Whitehouse and made her chair of the NZ Film & Literature Review Board?

[Even Then]

What evil and terrible things does this book have, then?

[Tolpuddle Martyr]

"Sexually explicit content, drug use and the use of a slang term for female genitalia."

Much naughtier than the bible which has mass murder, rape and incest apparently.

[ironbite]

Holy fuck they actually got it banned.

Ironbite-wow.

[Ultimate Paragon]

What's next, is New Zealand going to bring back blasphemy laws?

[Tolpuddle Martyr]

Welp, this got the banhammer but apparently A Clockwork Orange is still used as a senior text.

Make of that what you will.

[Sigmaleph]

1) What the hell, New Zealand? I don't expect the law against sharing the book with your friends will be enforced, but still. What the fuck.

2) The ban is an interim restriction pending review. Which means that within the next month the Film & Literature Board of Review has to come to a decision.

3) Since this is already international news, I'm gonna take the chance to make a prediction: the general pressure to get rid of the ban will be too great, it will be lifted, and the author will laugh all the way to the bank with all the free publicity the incident gave him.

4) One of these days, people will learn not to tempt the Streisand Effect.

[Art Vandelay]

Wow, I didn't even know you could ban books for anything as unimportant as offending moral crusaders. At least, not in one of the saner 1st world countries out there.

[Barbarella]

Y'know; Someone could just go to a non-NZ online bookstore and download an ebook version.

And I agree about the Streisand Effect.

These people aren't all that bright, are they?

[rookie]

If there's anybody here in New Zealand that wants a copy of this book, please PM me. It would give me no greater pleasure than to help disturbed this book, ban or no.

[Random Gal]

How is this even legal? This kind of draconian censorship law just shouldn't happen in a 21st-century developed country.

[Cerim Treascair]

If there's anybody here in New Zealand that wants a copy of this book, please PM me. It would give me no greater pleasure than to help disturbed this book, ban or no.

Not in NZ, but I'm now interested in the book.  I'd love a copy!