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 extraordinaire1976: Bernadette Renaud, Emilie, la baignoire à pattes1977: Denise Houle, Lune de neige1978: Ginette Anfousse, La chicane1979: Gabrielle Roy, Courte-Queue, ill. François Olivier;English translation,
Cliptail (McClelland & Stewart, 1980, OCLC 13443940)
1980: Bertrand Gauthier, Hébert Luée1981: 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 malices1983: Denis Côté, Hockeyeurs Cybernétiques1984: Daniel Sernine, Le cercle violet1985: Robert Soulières, Casse-tête chinois1986: Raymond Plante, Le derneir des raisins1987: David Schinkel and Yves Beauchesne, Le Don1988: Michèle Marineau, Cassiopée ou l'Été polonais1989: Charles Montpetit, Temps mort1990: Christiane Duchesne, La Vraie histoire du chien de Clara Vic1991: François Gravel, Deux heures et demie avant Jasmine1992: Christiane Duchesne, Victor1993: Michèle Marineau, La Route de Chlifa1994: Suzanne Martel, Une belle journée pour mourir1995: Sonia Sarfati, Comme une peau de chagrin1996: Gilles Tibo, Noémie: Le Secret de Madame Lumbago1997: Michel Noël, Pien1998: Angèle Delaunois, Variations sur un même «t'aime»1999: Charlotte Gingras, La Liberté? Connais pas...2000: Charlotte Gingras, Un été de Jade2001: Christiane Duchesne, Jomusch et le troll des cuisines2002: Hélène Vachon, L'oiseau de passage2003: Danielle Simard, J’ai vendu ma sœur2004: Nicole Leroux, L'Hiver de Léo Polatouche2005: Camille Bouchard, Le Ricanement des hyènes2006: Dany Laferrière, Je suis fou de Vava2007: François Barcelo, La fatigante et le fainéant2008: Sylvie Desrosiers, Les trois lieues2009: Janice Nadeau, Harvey2010: Élise Turcotte, Rose : derrière le rideau de la folie2011: Martin Fournier, Les aventures de Radisson - 1. L’enfer ne brûle pas2012: Aline Apostolska, Un été d’amour et de cendres2013: Geneviève Mativat, À l'ombre de la grande maison2014: Linda Amyot, Le jardin d’Amsterdam2015: Louis-Philippe Hébert, Marie Réparatrice2016: François Gilbert, Hare Krishna