NO!

Today New Zealand banned a book. I'm not at all happy about this being a school librarian. I have read it months and months and months ago and think it most certainly has its place and there is little else written like it from the perspective of a Maori teenager,


Nobody has the right to tell someone else they can not read a book. I, as a librarian, do not have this right. Sure, there will be restrictions around books, and school librarians buy books to suit their particular student base, but to be told suddenly by a conservative group to pull the book from your shelves because they disagree with the content of the book is outrageous.


I lent my copy to a friend months ago - apparently it is now illegal for her to give me back the book. Humbug to that.


Read the story here and then read this.


Family First say this is the start of a war on books that our children should not be reading. let me tell you that this is a start of librarians all around New Zealand fighting for a right for our clientele to read what they want!


(You as a parent have the right to ban your own children from reading or watching whatever. I can tell you right now schools battle every day with children seeing a lot more garbage on a screen than from content within a book. I've stopped all computers at lunchtime as am sick of the rubbish students find on the internet on you tube etc. I can not police every single device even if I try. So my solution has been a blanket ban!)