The Governor General's Award for French-language children's illustration is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian illustrator 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 illustration in a French-language children's book every year from 1977.
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 illustration prize was awarded every year from 1977.
1977: Claude Lafortune, L'évangile en papier, written by Henriette Major1978: Ginette Anfousse, La varicelle1979: Roger Paré, Une fenêtre dans ma tête, by Raymond Plante1980: Miyuki Tanobi, Les gens de mon pays, by Gilles Vigneault1981: Joanne Ouellet, Les Papinacois, by Michel Noël1982: Darcia Labrosse, Agnès et le singulier bestiare, by Marie José Thériault1983: Philippe Béha, Petit ours (Grand-maman, Où est ma tétine?, Mon bébé-soeur, Quand ça va mal), by Sylvie Assathiany and Louise Pelletier1984: Marie-Louise Gay, Drôle d'école (Rond comme ton visage, Blanc comme neige, Petit et grand, Un Léopard dans mon placard)1985: Roger Paré, L'alphabet1986: Stéphane Poulin, Album de famille and As-tu vu Joséphine?1987: Darcia Labrosse, Venir au monde1988: Philippe Béha, Les Jeux de Pic-Mots1989: Stéphane Poulin, Benjamin et la saga des oreillers1990: Pierre Pratt, Les Fantaisies de l'oncle Henri1991: Sheldon Cohen, Un champion1992: Gilles Tibo, Simon et la ville de carton1993: Stéphane Jorisch, Le Monde selon Jean de ...1994: Pierre Pratt, Mon chien est un éléphant1995: Annouchka Gravel Galouchko, Sho et les dragons d'eau1996: (none)1997: Stéphane Poulin, Poil de serpent, dent d'araignée1998: Pierre Pratt, Monsieur Ilétaitunefois1999: Stéphane Jorish, Charlotte et l'île du destin2000: Anne Villeneuve, L'Écharpe rouge2001: Bruce Roberts, Fidèles éléphants2002: Luc Melanson, Le grand voyage de Monsieur2003: Virginie Egger, Recette d’éléphant à la sauce vieux pneu2004: Janice Nadeau, Nul poisson où aller2005: Isabelle Arsenault, Le cœur de monsieur Gauguin2006: Rogé, Le gros monstre qui aimait trop lire2007: Geneviève Côté, La petite rapporteuse de mots2008: Janice Nadeau, Ma meilleure amie2009: Hervé Bouchard, Harvey2010: Daniel Sylvestre, Rose : derrière le rideau de la folie2011: Caroline Merola, Lili et les poilus2012: Élise Gravel, La clé à molette2013: Isabelle Arsenault, Jane, le renard et moi2014: Marianne Dubuc, Le lion et l’oiseau2015: André Marois and Patrick Doyon, Le voleur de sandwichs2016: Stéphanie Lapointe and Rogé, Grand-père et la lune