For my first blog post, I want to discuss the limitations on young adult literature. The rising question of when is the content, in young adult literacy, too much – or too adult – for young readers minds? I will be referencing an online CNN post I found that titles, “New Zealand Bans Young Adult Novel; First Book Ban in 22 years”, posted on September 8, 2015 by Euan McKirdy.

There is a fine line, I believe, in writing young adult literature when the author should know how far the young adult readers’ mind should stretch when reading about serious content. Obviously, we cannot keep our children and young adults away from reading topics about, race, violence, sexuality, wars, and etc.; these sensitive and serious topics should be read and talked about, but an author should know when he or she takes it too far. An award winning author in New Zealand, Ted Dawe, wrote a young adult novel Into the River, and this was eventually taken notice by a family advocacy group, in New Zealand, called Family First who complained. This caused the novel to be taken out of circulation by New Zealand’s Film and Literature Board. The reasoning behind this was because, “The group objects to the graphic language and themes contained in the book, including “strong offensive language, strong sexual descriptions (and) covers serious things like pedophilia and sexual abuse,” according to Bob McCoskrie, National Director, Family First NZ” (McKirdy, CNN, 2015). Young adult literate should be meant for young adults to escape into the world of the book. Here they can prepare themselves into the world of adulthood, by reading about content that they might face in the real world. But, is talking about sexual content, to an extent, too much? New Zealand seems to think so. At first, they were only limiting the age restriction on the book, but then they eventually decided to ban it all together. With this action from the country, this will lead other countries to be cautious with their literacy for children, or this will either make other countries look down upon them if they think this action was taken too far. For myself, I would not want my young adult child reading about gratuitous sexual content but for others, this might be okay. I agree with New Zealand’s action and think it is upstanding that they are looking out for their children’s literacy in their country.

Works Cited:

McKirdy, Euan. “New Zealand Bans Young Adult Novel ‘Into the River’.” CNN, Cable News Network, 8 Sept. 2015, www.cnn.com/2015/09/08/asia/new-zealand-book-ban/index.html.