Write a book review – either a book for young people, or a book to support your professional activities.
The book I chose to review is The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn. This book appealed to me as I’m always looking for books that my 15 year old son and I will both enjoy reading. It’s not that he doesn’t like to read, I just have to encourage him to turn the technology off occasionally and what better way than placing a good book on his bedside table.
Claire Zorn is a young Australian author and The Sky So Heavy is her acclaimed first novel for young adults (YA). Set in the Blue Mountains and Sydney, The Sky So Heavy revolves around 17 year old Fin and his younger brother Max. What starts as an ordinary school day soon turns into an apocalyptic tale as the brothers find themselves abandoned and facing a nuclear winter alone. Food is scarce, electricity and phones are down, and it is cold. The situation becomes increasingly desperate and dangerous and the boys join forces with Lucy, Fin’s crush from school, and Arnold, the boy everyone bullied, and together they set off on a journey to Sydney in the hope of finding Fin’s mother.
Zorn has written a thought-provoking and compelling book, and one I found hard to put down. The novel explores a number of themes around the nature of humanity and relationships but above all implies that we ask ourselves “what would you do?”
While this book review may seem a million miles away from the topic of censorship, I found an article that related the story of a teacher who faced a dilemma when she set a class reading assignment based on a book that she hadn’t yet read (Denzin, 2013, p. 7-8). The book, also a post-apocalyptic tale, contained some very explicit sexual content that Denzin soon realised could land her in trouble with either parents or the school administrators. To her credit, Denzin handled the situation in a very rational way and she concludes that restricting students from reading what they want is not her role, but that young people have the power of choice and will make their own decisions about what to read the same as everyone else (Denzin, 2013, p. 10).
The debate about censorship and banned books has been raging for a long time and there are many articles worth reading about the history of censorship related to books that have been deemed unsuitable for young readers, including the Harry Potter series (Jenkins, 2008, p. 232). As a librarian it is important to be aware of this debate and also the policies that have been put into place to protect the reading rights of all people (ALIA, 2007).
Reading YA literature is important, not to censor the reading content of young people, for that is not our role as librarians either, but so we can make recommendations and encourage young people to read the books we hope they will enjoy. My last thoughts on this topic come from an anecdotal story about an eight year old reader who told her school librarian that she wanted to read Fifty Shades of Grey, which just begs the question, “what would you do?”
References.
ALIA. (2007). Statement on free access to information. Retrieved from https://www.alia.org.au/about-alia/policies-standards-and-guidelines/statement-free-access-information
Denzin, J. (2013). Boundaries for contemporary literature: The role of censorship and choice. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 57(1), 7-11. doi: 10.1002/JAAL.213
Jenkins, C. A. (2008). Research directions: Book challenges, challenging books, and young readers: The research picture. Language Arts, 85(3), 228-236. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org
INF330 Professional Development 
As a fan of young adult books I’m always searching for new books to read, and after reading your post and review the book The Sky So Heavy by Claire Zorn has been added to my ‘to read list’. You have made this book sound interesting to me when you described it as “thought provoking and compelling”, which all the best books are.
The way you tied your book review into the topic of censorship was something I have never seen done before and I enjoyed how you found someone’s personal experiences with controversial books and used that to make your point; of young people having a choice in what they read.
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