Phoenix Award
The Phoenix Award annually recognizes one English-language children's book published twenty years earlier that did not then win a major literary award. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix that is reborn from its own ashes, signifying the book's rise from relative obscurity.[1]
The award was established and is conferred by the Children's Literature Association (ChLA), a nonprofit organization based in the United States whose mission is to advance "the serious study of children's literature". The winner is selected by an elected committee of five ChLA members, from nominations by members and outsiders. The token is a brass statue.[1]
The inaugural, 1985 Phoenix Award recognized The Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcliff (Oxford, 1965). Beginning 1989, as many as two runners-up have been designated "Honor Books", with 34 named for the 29 years to 2017.[a]
A parallel award for children's picture books, the Phoenix Picture Book Award was approved in 2010 and inaugurated in 2013. There are two awards if the writer and illustrator are different people. "Books are considered not only for the quality of their illustrations, but for the way pictures and text work together to tell a story (whether fact or fiction). Wordless books are judged on the ability of the pictures alone to convey a story."[2]
Latest rendition
The 33rd annual Phoenix Award and fifth Phoenix Picture Book Award were presented on June 24 2017 at the ChLA Annual Conference hosted by the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida. The 2018 Phoenix Award winner has also been announced.[1] The awards are included in the tables below.
Phoenix Award winners
There have been 35 Award winners and 35 Honor Books announced since 1985 (1965 to 1998 publications).[1][3][4][5]
- ‡ Seven acceptance speeches have been published online in one of two locations:[1][8] Monica Hughes, 2000; Peter Dickinson, 2001; Zibby Oneal, 2002; Berlie Doherty, 2004; Peter Dickinson, 2008; Virginia Euwer Wolff, 2011; Karen Hesse, 2012.
Multiple awards
Three writers each won two of the 31 Phoenix Awards through 2017.[3]
- Rosemary Sutcliff, 1985, 2010
- Peter Dickinson, 2001, 2008
- Margaret Mahy, 2005, 2007
Mahy of New Zealand was also a runner up in 2006.
Several of the winners have also received the British Carnegie Medal for other books: Sutcliff (1959); Garner (1967); Garfield (1970); Southall (1971); Hunter (1974); Dickinson (1979, 1980); Mahy (1982, 1984); Doherty (1986, 1991).
Three of the winners have also won the American Newbery Medal for other books: Konigsburg (1968 and 1997); Paterson (1978, 1981); Hesse (1998).
Picture Book Award winners
There were five Phoenix Picture Book Award winners and seven Honor Books named for 2013 through 2017.[2]
The writer is listed first, the illustrator second if distinct.
| Year | Winner | Honor Books |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Christopher Myers, Black Cat | Amy Littlesuger and Floyd Cooper Tree of Hope |
| 2018 | Robert D. San Souci and Brian Pinkney, Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella | Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman and Robin Preiss Glasser, You Can’t Take A Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum |
| 2017 | Mary McKenna Siddals and Petra Mathers, Tell Me a Season | Demi, One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Tale |
| 2016 | Molly Bang, Goose | Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney, Sam and the Tigers |
| 2015 | Sara Fanelli, My Map Book | Charlotte Zolotow and Stefano Vitale, When the Wind Stops (revised and newly illustrated, 1995)‡ |
| 2014[6] | Raymond Briggs, The Bear | Peggy Rathmann, Good Night, Gorilla |
| 2013[7] | Kevin Henkes, Owen | Denise Fleming, In the Small, Small Pond |
- ‡ When the Wind Stops, written by Zolotow and illustrated by Vitale (HarperCollins, 1995), "revised and newly illustrated" OCLC 731251488. When the Wind Stops, written by Zolotow and edited by Ursula Nordstrom, was published in 1962 with illustrations by Howard Knotts (New York: Harper & Row, OCLC 427201792) and by Joe Lasker (London: Abelard-Schuman, OCLC 680167163).
See also
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Phoenix Award" Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine (current top page). Children's Literature Association (ChLA). Retrieved 2014-07-11.
- ^ a b c "Phoenix Picture Book Award" Archived 2016-12-19 at the Wayback Machine. ChLA. 2014. Retrieved 2014-07-11.
- ^ a b c "The Phoenix Award"[permanent dead link] (brochure). ChLA. 2012. Retrieved 2012-08-24 and 2014-07-11.
- ^ a b c "Phoenix Award" (top page). ChLA. Archived 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
- ^ a b c "Phoenix Award" (top page). ChLA. Archived 2013-12-11. Retrieved 2013-12-10.
- ^ a b c
ChLA Newsletter. Vol. 20, Issue 2 (Autumn 2013) Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine. pp. 6–7. Retrieved 2014-07-12.
Pages 2–7 comprise material related to the June 2014 annual conference. - ^ a b c ChLA Newsletter. Vol. 19, Issue 2 (Autumn 2012) Archived 2014-07-14 at the Wayback Machine. p. 6. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
- ^ "List of Phoenix Award Papers" (2000–2010). ChLA. Archived 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2014-07-13. The linked papers are not archived here (Internet Archive).
- ^ "Previous Award and Honor Books Recipients" (1985–2009). ChLA. January 2010. Retrieved 2014-07-13.
External links
- Children's Literature Association (ChLA)
- Awards from previous years (1985–2007) at chla.wikispaces.com, predecessor to the ChLA website – identifies some publishers of later editions; provides award citations of 2005 to 2007 winners
- Children's Literature Association Quarterly at Project MUSE (jhu.edu/journals), Volume 1 (1976) to present; annual conference Proceedings, 1978 to 1991 only (subscription required) – open-access lists of contents include full bibliographic citations for articles and publications searches for authors