Last week, at a very glamourous and well attended ceremony in Toronto, my picture book Le bonnet magique won the Prix Trillium du livre jeunesse (Trillium Award for Children’s Books). What an incredible honour to receive this prize!
2025 marks my 25th year as an author and Le Bonnet magique/The Magic Cap is my 30th (ish!) children’s book. Needless to say that I had been dreaming of being selected for this award for a long time.
2025 also marks the first time that a picture book wins this award since the category covers ALL children’s books aimed at readers 0 to 18 years old. This year’s finalists in my category included Michèle Laframboise with her sci-fi novel Rose du désert and playwrite Eudes La Roche-Francoeur with Le Roi Poubelle, an environmental-themed play for middle graders.
Le bonnet magique/The Magic Cap is a story of hope, friendship, and magic. And that is exactly what I felt in that room as I addressed the assembled crowd of book lovers, writers and publishers attending the ceremony at the Toronto Reference Library.
By awarding my picture book this award, the jury confirmed the importance of magic, hope and gentleness in children’s litterature as a salve to the harshness of everyday life.
Winning the Trillium award motivates me to keep creating stories for kids for years to come.
I would like to thank the team at Ontario Créatif/Ontario Creates and the members of the jury for their hard work showcasing our local creators.
Lastly, I would also like to thank my editor, Nadie Robert at Comme des géants and the illustrator of Le bonnet magic, Charlotte Parent, without whom this book would not exist.
Here are a few pictures of the wonderful event – a night which will stay etched in my memory for a long time.
Thank you and long life to children’s books!