Canada Reads features first young adult novel
Elaine Lui is defending When Everything Feels like the Movies
No matter the outcome of next week’s CBC Canada Reads debates, panellist Elaine Lui already feels victorious.
The co-host of CTV’s The Social, who founded the popular blog Lainey-Gossip and recently published the memoir Listen to the Squawking Chicken, is defending Raziel Reid’s young adult novel When Everything Feels like the Movies in the annual literary competition.
It’s the first time a young adult novel has been included in the contest, in which five Canadian personalities defend a homegrown book in a series of debates that air on CBC’s radio, TV and online platforms. The books are eliminated one by one until a winner is declared.
Wab Kinew, who is replacing fired Jian Ghomeshi as host, won last year’s competition by supporting Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda.
One Book to Break Barriers is the theme of this year’s debates, which take place Monday through Thursday.
“I, first of all, am a big fan of young adult literature and I don’t think it gets enough respect, so I was so proud and honoured to be chosen as the person to defend the first YA book in Canada Reads,” Lui said in an interview.
“I feel like it’s a win already — that among these four wonderful stories, Raziel’s book has been included.”
When Everything Feels like the Movies won a $25,000 Governor General’s Literary Award for children’s literature-text in November, making 24-year-old Reid the youngest author ever to receive the honour in that category.
It’s inspired by the true story of Lawrence (Larry) Fobes King, an openly gay 15-year-old who was shot to death by an eighth grade classmate inside a school in Oxnard, California, in 2008. The incident happened after he’d asked the classmate to be his Valentine.
The book’s competition includes the acclaimed Ru by Kim Thuy, which will be championed by Cameron Bailey, artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival.
Children’s rights activist Craig Kielburger is on the panel with multi-award-winning The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King.
The other books are And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier, which is represented by singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright, and Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes by Kamal Al-Solaylee, which will be defended by actress Kristin Kreuk. Said Lui of Reid’s novel: “This is relatable to so many people. You don’t have to be gay, you don’t have to live in a small town, you just have to have felt ‘other’ at some point — and we all have.”