''Lac Adélard'' is a French novel written by Canadian author
François Blais and published in 2019 by La courte échelle. It won the 2020
Governor General's Literary Award
The Governor General's Awards are a collection of annual awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, recognizing distinction in numerous academic, artistic, and social fields.
The first award was conceived and inaugurated in 1937 by the ...
for French-language children's literature.
Backstory
Lac Adélard, is a lake in the
Mauricie
Mauricie () is a traditional and current administrative region of Quebec. La Mauricie National Park is contained within the region, making it a prime tourist location. The region has a land area of 35,860.05 km² (13,845.64 sq mi) and a popu ...
region of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
near Blais' home in
Grand-Mère which he frequented often. He grew up in the surrounding area and knew it well, which inspired him to anchor the book's characters Anna and Elijah there in present time, and those of Rose-Marie and Sarah, also there but in the past.
When approached by his publisher to participate in its "Collection Noire" book series, Blais had not read a children's novel since youth and decided not to read similar books by other authors. Instead, he relied on his instincts and adjusted his writing to suit the target audience, making the age of the protagonists the differential change between this book and his previous adult novels. Knowing that a younger audience faced a variety of distractions, it was important to him that the readers turn to the next page.
Synopsis
''Lac Adélard'' is the story of Rose-Marie, a nine-year-old girl who disappeared in the summer of 1989 under unusual circumstances while living with her mother and her mother's friend near a small lake in
Charette. Thirty years later, teenagers Élie and Anna, find Rose-Marie's diary and take a trip to Lac Adélard in an attempt to unravel the mystery of her disappearance.
Awards
''Lac Adélard'' won the 2020
Governor General’s Award for French-language children literature at the
2020 Governor General's Awards, and was chosen by students across Canada for the 2021 Forest of Reading Award winners.
Reception
The book was generally well received in Blais' home province of Quebec. Marie Fradette writes in ''
Le Devoir
''Le Devoir'' (, "Duty") is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and throughout Canada. It was founded by journalist and politician Henri Bourassa in 1910.
''Le Devoir'' is one of few independent large-c ...
'', "we constantly feel the author's ease behind the expected seriousness of the story." Camille Gauthier in the journal ''Les libraires'', "True to himself, he also adds a touch of humor and irony to his novel."
References
{{Reflist
2019 Canadian novels
Governor General's Award-winning children's books
Canadian children's novels