The Governor General's Award for French-language children's writing is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a children's book written in French. It is one of four children's book awards among the Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, one each for writers and illustrators of English- and French-language books. The Governor General's Awards program is administered by the Canada Council.
In name, this award is part of the Governor General's Award program only from 1987 but the four children's literature awards were established in 1975 under a Canada Council name. In the event, the "Canada Council" and "Governor General's" awards have recognized writing in a French-language children's book every year from 1975.
In 1975 the Canada Council established four annual prizes of $5000 for the year's best English- and French-language children's books by Canadian writers and illustrators. Those "Canada Council Children's Literature Prizes" were continued under the "Governor General's Awards" rubric from 1987, and continue today. Among them the French-language writing prize was awarded every year from 1975.
1975: Louise Aylwin, Raminagradu: Histoires ordinaires pour enfants extraordinaire
1976: Bernadette Renaud, Emilie, la baignoire à pattes
1977: Denise Houle, Lune de neige
1978: Ginette Anfousse, La chicane
1979: Gabrielle Roy, Courte-Queue, ill. François Olivier;
English translation,
Cliptail (McClelland & Stewart, 1980, OCLC 13443940)
1980: Bertrand Gauthier, Hébert Luée
1981: Suzanne Martel, Nos amis robots;
English translation,
Robot Alert (Kids Can Press, 1982, OCLC 671722736)
1982: Ginette Anfousse, Fabien 1: Un loup pour Rose and Fabien 2: Une nuit au pays des malices
1983: Denis Côté, Hockeyeurs Cybernétiques
1984: Daniel Sernine, Le cercle violet
1985: Robert Soulières, Casse-tête chinois
1986: Raymond Plante, Le derneir des raisins
1987: David Schinkel and Yves Beauchesne, Le Don
1988: Michèle Marineau, Cassiopée ou l'Été polonais
1989: Charles Montpetit, Temps mort
1990: Christiane Duchesne, La Vraie histoire du chien de Clara Vic
1991: François Gravel, Deux heures et demie avant Jasmine
1992: Christiane Duchesne, Victor
1993: Michèle Marineau, La Route de Chlifa
1994: Suzanne Martel, Une belle journée pour mourir
1995: Sonia Sarfati, Comme une peau de chagrin
1996: Gilles Tibo, Noémie: Le Secret de Madame Lumbago
1997: Michel Noël, Pien
1998: Angèle Delaunois, Variations sur un même «t'aime»
1999: Charlotte Gingras, La Liberté? Connais pas...
2000: Charlotte Gingras, Un été de Jade
2001: Christiane Duchesne, Jomusch et le troll des cuisines
2002: Hélène Vachon, L'oiseau de passage
2003: Danielle Simard, J’ai vendu ma sœur
2004: Nicole Leroux, L'Hiver de Léo Polatouche
2005: Camille Bouchard, Le Ricanement des hyènes
2006: Dany Laferrière, Je suis fou de Vava
2007: François Barcelo, La fatigante et le fainéant
2008: Sylvie Desrosiers, Les trois lieues
2009: Janice Nadeau, Harvey
2010: Élise Turcotte, Rose : derrière le rideau de la folie
2011: Martin Fournier, Les aventures de Radisson - 1. L’enfer ne brûle pas
2012: Aline Apostolska, Un été d’amour et de cendres
2013: Geneviève Mativat, À l'ombre de la grande maison
2014: Linda Amyot, Le jardin d’Amsterdam
2015: Louis-Philippe Hébert, Marie Réparatrice
2016: François Gilbert, Hare Krishna
