Into the River

Into the River is a novel by Ted Dawe, featuring a coming-of-age story set in New Zealand,[1] and intended for a young adult audience. It was awarded the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year prize and also won the top prize in the Young Adult Fiction category at the 2013 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards.[1][2] It was briefly banned from sale and supply in New Zealand.[3][4]

Into the River
AuthorTed Dawe
CountryNew Zealand
GenreYoung adult fiction
Published2012
PublisherMangakino University Press
Pages279
AwardsNew Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, Best Young Adult Fiction and Margaret Mahy Book of the Year, 2013
ISBN9780473205089
Websitehttp://www.teddawe.com/intotheriver.html

Plot summary

Set in New Zealand, the book tells the story of Māori youth Te Arepa Santos as he moves from the East Coast to Auckland to boarding school, where he has encounters with intimacy, sex, drugs, racism and death.[5]

Restrictions and banning

In 2013 New Zealand's Film and Literature Board of Review, or appeal from New Zealand's classification office (which had given the book an unrestricted M rating) restricted Into the River to readers aged 14 years and over.[5] This was the first time in New Zealand's history this classification was used.[6] Auckland Libraries applied to have this decision reconsidered in 2015. One of the reasons given for the appeal was "the impact that the restriction has had on the value of the book as a teaching resource, and the significance of the book as an aid to countering issues in New Zealand about bullying".[5][6] The conservative Christian lobby group Family First appealed this decision, and applied for an interim restriction order, which was granted by the President of the Board of Review. The interim restriction order under New Zealand's Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993, bans it completely from being sold or supplied in New Zealand.[3][7]

This was the first time a book had been subject to an interim restriction order in New Zealand in 22 years and was reported by several foreign news media.[8][9][10] The banning of the book has led to an increase of interest in it, something that has been cited as an example of the Streisand effect, in which an attempt to oppose something leads to its wider dissemination as an unintended side-effect.[11] On 14 October 2015, the Film and Literature Board lifted the interim ban on Into the River; ruling by a majority that while aspects of the book were offensive it did not merit an age restriction. The ruling was welcomed by libraries and bookstores. In response, Family First director Bob McCoskrie accused the board of succumbing to book industry pressure despite what he alleged was the book's "highly offensive and gratuitous language, adult themes and graphic sexual content."[12][4]

In response to the interim restriction order, MP Chris Bishop proposed a member's bill which would allow partial interim restriction orders, for example, applying the restriction order only to person of a certain age. The Films, Videos, and Publications Classification (Interim Restriction Orders Classification) Amendment Bill was drawn from the ballot on 10 November 2016, and passed its third reading unanimously on 29 November 2017.[13]

Editions

Dawe initially self-published the book in 2012, before it was picked up by a local imprint of Penguin Random House.[14]

Awards and reviews

In 2013 it won both Best Young Adult Fiction and Margaret Mahy Book of the Year at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards.[18]

  • New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, Best Young Adult Fiction, 2013[18]
  • New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, Margaret Mahy Book of the Year, 2013[18]
  • New Zealand Books: A quarterly review called the book a "visceral, bubblingly hormonal novel" and said "[I]t's a percussively authentic rendering. The elbowing, anarchic humour is tone-perfect."[19]
  • The World Socialist Web Site praised Dawe's "frankness and honesty" and stated: "His characters express widely held sentiments of bitterness, alienation and anger towards the social set-up, which find no reflection in the vast majority of films, TV shows and books."[20]

See also

References
  1. "Winners announced for New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards". Booksellers NZ. 24 June 2013.
  2. "News From Elsewhere: New Zealand: Award-winning Into the River novel banned". BBC News. 7 September 2015.
  3. Eleanor Ainge Roy (7 September 2015). "New Zealand bans award-winning teenage novel after outcry from Christian group". The Guardian.
  4. "Ban on into the River novel lifted". Radio New Zealand. 14 October 2015.
  5. "NOTICE OF DECISION UNDER SECTION 38(1)" (PDF). Office of Film and Literature Classification. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  6. "Book case study – Into the River". Office of Film and Literature Classification. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  7. Collins (7 September 2015). "'Will I be burnt next?' – Into the River author Ted Dawe on book banning". The New Zealand Herald.
  8. McKirdy, Euan (8 September 2015). "New Zealand bans young adult novel; first book ban in 22 years". CNN. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  9. "New Zealand: Award-winning Into the River novel banned". BBC News. 7 September 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  10. Roy, Eleanor Ainge (7 September 2015). "New Zealand bans award-winning teenage novel after outcry from Christian group". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  11. Nikki Papatsoumas (10 September 2015). "Searched for banned book 'Into the River' increasing, say Trade Me". The New Zealand Herald.
  12. Groves, Nancy (14 October 2015). "Ban lifted on New Zealand young adult novel into the River". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  13. "Films, Videos, and Publications Classification (Interim Restriction Orders) Amendment Bill". New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  14. "The positives and pitfalls of self-publishing for bookstores". booksellers.co.nz.
  15. "Into the river". worldcat.org.
  16. "Into the river". worldcat.org.
  17. "Into the river". worldcat.org.
  18. "Winners announced for New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards". booksellers.co.nz.
  19. "Hormones and hedges David Hill". New Zealand Books: A quarterly review.
  20. "Ted Dawe's into the River: A compelling portrait of life for a working-class teenager in New Zealand". World Socialist Web Site.
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