A national award-winning book by an author with ties to Thompson is now the subject of a petition to revoke its recognition because of what petition creators call its “offensive and graphic nature.”
Young adult novel When Everything Feels Like the Movies by 24-year-old Vancouver writer Raziel Reid, who spent summer holidays in Thompson with his house-bound grandmother and spent hours making up stories in his room, was awarded the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Award in the children’s literature category in November.
The novel tells the story of a gay teenaged boy named Jude and the author says it was inspired by the real-life story of Larry Forbes King, who was shot and killed by another boy in his school whom he had asked to be his Valentine. It was described to the Thompson Citizen as “gritty, difficult, intense, but above all, truthful,” by Brian Lam of Arsenal Pulp Press, the Vancouver-based publisher of When Everything Feels Like the Movies, at the time it won the award.
The petition was published on GoPetition by Samara Koning on Jan. 11 and reads, “Given the graphic and offensive nature of the words and images used in Raziel Reid’s novel for Young Adults and the influence this will have on children’s minds, and given that the Governor General’s Award has the mandate to honor the best in Canadian Literature, we the undersigned, request that the Canada Council for the Arts revoke the Governor General’s Award for literature from Raziel Reid.”
In the National Post on Jan. 21, Barbara Kay wrote, “I’d not have wasted tax dollars on this values-void novel. So I must assume that the committee took a kind of sophisticated approach to their deliberations that I am too culturally superannuated and simplistic to appreciate.”
An excerpt from the novel is included in the petition preamble, which also states: “We feel this book damages the high standards we have come to expect of the Governor General’s Award. It is not what we as parents, grandparents, educations and fellow authors consider good literature for teens. By signing the petition we ask the Canadian Council for the Arts to revoke the award given to Raziel Reid and assign it to one of the other more worthy short-listed authors.
The petition had 1,788 signatures as of Jan. 29.
When Everything Feels Like the Movies is one of five finalists in the CBC 2015 Canada Reads contest, with Elaine “Lainey” Lui - co-host of CTV’s The Social, an etalk reporter and the writer of the celebrity gossip blog LaineyGossip.com - championing it in the debates. This year’s Canada Reads contest focuses on books that “can change perspectives, challenge stereotypes and illuminate issues.”
