Author Raziel Reid defends his debut novel from critics, who want him stripped of GG award

In November, Vancouver author Raziel Reid learned that his first novel, When Everything Feels like the Movies, had won a Governor General's Literary Award in the children's literature category. 

Now, more than sixteen hundred people -- including children's author Kathy Clark -- are petitioning to have the award revoked, calling the book, which is written for a young adult audience, "vulgar, offensive and graphic."

The novel's central character is inspired by the true story of a gay California teenager who was shot to death by a male classmate. The teen had asked his classmate to the prom. Reid's fictional and "edgy" depiction of that story has come under fire as being inappropriate for younger readers. 

"I think some kids are too young to read a lot," Reid tells As it Happens host Carol Off. "But when I was 12, I could have read this book and loved it." 

"And it probably would have saved me attempting suicide at 15," says Reid, who is also gay, and who struggled with his own identity as a teenager. Reid bristles at the suggestion that his book should be censored, or deemed inappropriate for young adult readers, who are 12 to 18 years old.

"My voice has been oppressed my whole life. On the school yard I was even attacked for the sound of it. I accepted it then,  but I'm older now. And I know it's a voice that deserves to be heard."
 
"I have a problem with young people hanging in closets, and I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that I might be able to save some people from that fate." 

Raziel's book was chosen for this year's Canada Reads program that airs on CBC Radio in March. The theme of this year's Battle of the Books is "What is the one book to break barriers?"  

The original petition can be found here. Click here for a link to a petition in support of Reid.