The Phoenix Award annually recognizes one

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

published twenty years earlier that did not then win a major

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ceremony. Ma ...

. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix that is reborn from its own ashes, signifying the book's rise from relative obscurity. The award was established and is conferred by the

Children's Literature Association The Children's Literature Association (ChLA) is a non-profit association, based in the United States, of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers, and institutions dedicated to studying children's literature.Margaret W. Denman- ...

(ChLA), a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

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. The inaugural, 1985 Phoenix Award recognized ''The Mark of the Horse Lord'' by

Rosemary Sutcliff Rosemary Sutcliff (14 December 1920 – 23 July 1992) was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novel ...

(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 parallel award for children's

picture books A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

, 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."

Phoenix Award winners

There have been 35 Award winners and 35 Honor Books announced since 1985 (1965 to 1998 publications). : ‡ Seven acceptance speeches have been published online in one of two locations:

Monica Hughes Monica Hughes (November 3, 1925 – March 7, 2003) was an English-Canadian author of books for children and young adults, especially science fiction. She also wrote adventure and historical novels set in Canada, and the text for some children's ...

, 2000;

Peter Dickinson Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL (16 December 1927 – 16 December 2015) was an English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories. Dickinson won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association ...

, 2001; Zibby Oneal, 2002;

Berlie Doherty Berlie Doherty (born 6 November 1943) is an English novelist, poet, playwright and screenwriter. She is best known for children's books, for which she has twice won the Carnegie Medal. She has also written novels for adults, plays for theatre an ...

, 2004;

, 2008;

Virginia Euwer Wolff Virginia Euwer Wolff (born August 25, 1937) is an American author of children's literature. Her award-winning series ''Make Lemonade'' features a 14-year-old girl named LaVaughn, who babysits for the children of a 17-year-old single mother. There ...

, 2011;

Karen Hesse Karen S. Hesse (born August 29, 1952) is an American author of children's literature and literature for young adults, often with historical settings. She won the Newbery Medal for ''Out of the Dust'' (1997). Early years and education Karen Hess ...

, 2012.

Multiple awards

As of 2021, there have been three two-time winners of the Phoenix Award: *

, 1985, 2010 *

, 2001, 2008 *

Margaret Mahy Margaret Mahy (21 March 1936 – 23 July 2012) was a New Zealand author of children's and young adult books. Many of her story plots have strong supernatural elements but her writing concentrates on the themes of human relationships and growi ...

, 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 The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

for other books: Konigsburg (1968 and 1997); Paterson (1978, 1981); Hesse (1998).

Picture Book Award winners

The Phoenix Picture Book Award was first given in 2013, for books originally published in 1993. The writer is listed first, the illustrator second if distinct. : '' When the Wind Stops'', written by Zolotow and illustrated by Vitale (

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

, 1995), "revised and newly illustrated" . '' When the Wind Stops'', written by Zolotow and edited by

Ursula Nordstrom Ursula Nordstrom (February 2, 1910 – October 11, 1988) was publisher and editor-in-chief of juvenile books at Harper & Row from 1940 to 1973. She is credited with presiding over a transformation in children's literature in which morality tales ...

, was published in 1962 with illustrations by

Howard Knotts Howard Clayton Knotts was a prominent American aviation lawyer who served in World War I as a flying ace credited with six aerial victories. Early life Howard Clayton Knotts (25 August 1895—23 November 1942) was the son of district attorney ...

(

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

, ) and by Joe Lasker (

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Abelard-Schuman Thomas Y. Crowell Co. was a publishing company founded by Thomas Y. Crowell. The company began as a bookbindery founded by Benjamin Bradley in 1834. Crowell operated the business after Bradley's death in 1862 and eventually purchased the compan ...

, ).

Notes

References

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 Project MUSE, a non-profit collaboration between libraries and publishers, is an online database of peer-reviewed academic journals and electronic books. Project MUSE contains digital humanities and social science content from over 250 university ...