"THE CRUEL SEA"
Sir The Sunday evening talk on August 23 was about Children’s Book _ Week, and I was simply amazed to hear the speaker, Mrs. P. M. Hattaway, suggest The Cruel Sea as a suitable book for youngsters to read. To put it mildly I was shocked to think that this book, containing what it does, should be su recommended, Had the story been written as a straightforward narrative, witout its attendant sordidness, it would be really first-class; but as it stands-well, I just didn’t read more than about a third before I became sick with disgust at the language alone. Old-fashioned ideas, you say? I am old-fashioned if speeking as I am is being old-fashioned. Children hear just as bad swearing, anyway, and the seamy side of lifé is no secret to children, you say? Maybe today’s children do hear all about the badness such a book contains, anywaybut why read about it when there are so many other much nicer books in our libraries? I know that a "banned" book is a "made" book very often, and to put such books as. The Cruel Sea out of
children’s reach would only make them curious-but to have it actually recommended is what appalled me. :
J.M.
S.
(Wellington).
(A revised and shortened edition of The Cruel Sea has been published for younger readers.-Ed. )
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530918.2.12.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 740, 18 September 1953, Page 5
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224"THE CRUEL SEA" New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 740, 18 September 1953, Page 5
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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