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. [lower-alpha 1]
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]
There have been 35 Award winners and 35 Honor Books announced since 1985 (1965 to 1998 publications). [1] [3] [4] [5]
As of 2021, there have been three two-time winners of the Phoenix Award: [3]
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).
The Phoenix Picture Book Award was first given in 2013, for books originally published in 1993.
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Kevin Henkes | Owen | Winner | [7] |
| Denise Fleming | In the Small, Small Pond | Honor | [7] | |
| 2014 | Raymond Briggs | The Bear | Winner | [8] |
| Anne Isaacs , illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky | Swamp Angel | Honor | [8] | |
| Peggy Rathmann | Good Night, Gorilla | Honor | [8] | |
| 2015 | Sara Fanelli | My Map Book | Winner | |
| Kady MacDonald Denton | Would They Love a Lion? | Honor | ||
| Charlotte Zolotow , illus. by Stefano Vitale | When the Wind Stops (revised and newly illustrated, 1995) [lower-alpha 4] | Honor | ||
| 2016 | Molly Bang | Goose | Winner | |
| Julius Lester , illus. by Jerry Pinkney | Sam and the Tigers | Honor | ||
| 2017 | Mary McKenna Siddals , illus. by Petra Mathers | Tell Me a Season | Winner | |
| Demi | One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Tale | Honor | ||
| 2018 | Robert D. San Souci and Brian Pinkney | Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella | Winner | |
| Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman , illus. by Robin Preiss Glasser | You Can’t Take A Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum | Honor | ||
| 2019 | Christopher Myers | Black Cat | Winner | |
| Amy Littlesuger , illus. by Floyd Cooper | Tree of Hope | Honor | ||
| 2020 | Shaun Tan | The Lost Thing | Winner | |
| Christopher Myers | Wings | Honor | ||
| 2021 | Grace Lin | Dim Sum for Everyone! | Winner | |
| Francisco X. Alarcón , illus. by Maya Christina Gonzalez | Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems/Iguanas en la nieve y otros poemas de inviero | Honor | ||
| Shaun Tan | The Red Tree | Honor | ||
| 2022 | Allen Say | Home of the Brave | Winner | |
| Lauren Child , illus. by Maya Christina Gonzalez | Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Book? | Honor | ||
| Mordicai Gerstein | What Charlie Heard | Honor | ||
| Julius Lester , illus. by Joe Cepeda | Why Heaven is Far Away | Honor | ||
| 2023 | Marla Frazee | Roller Coaster | Winner | |
| Yuyi Morales | Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book | Honor | ||
| Jerdine Nolen , illus. by Kadir Nelson | Thunder Rose | Honor |
Rosemary Sutcliff 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 novels were specifically written for adults. In a 1986 interview she said, "I would claim that my books are for children of all ages, from nine to ninety."
Gary Anthony Soto is an American poet, novelist, and memoirist.
Margaret Mahy 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 growing up. She wrote more than 100 picture books, 40 novels and 20 collections of short stories. At her death she was one of thirty writers to win the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her "lasting contribution to children's literature".
Raymond Redvers Briggs was an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author. Achieving critical and popular success among adults and children, he is best known in Britain for his 1978 story The Snowman, a book without words whose cartoon adaptation is televised and whose musical adaptation is staged every Christmas.
Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL was an English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories.
Charles William James Keeping was an English illustrator, children's book author and lithographer. He made the illustrations for Rosemary Sutcliff's historical novels for children, and he created more than twenty picture books. He also illustrated the complete works of Charles Dickens for the Folio Society.
Sylvia Louise Engdahl is an American writer, known best for science fiction. Her debut novel Enchantress from the Stars, published by Atheneum Books in 1970, was the 1971 Newbery Honor Book, was a Geffen Award finalist in 2008, Best Translated YA Book, and she won the Phoenix Award for that work twenty years later.
Mo Willems is an American writer, animator, voice actor, and children's book author. His work includes creating the animated television series Sheep in the Big City for Cartoon Network, working on Sesame Street and The Off-Beats, and creating the children's book series Elephant and Piggie.
Charlotte Zolotow was an American writer, poet, editor, and publisher of many books for children. She wrote about 70 picture book texts.
Kevin Henkes is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. As an illustrator he won the Caldecott Medal for Kitten's First Full Moon (2004). Two of his books were Newbery Medal Honor Books, Olive's Ocean in 2004 and The Year of Billy Miller in 2014. His picture book Waiting was named both a 2016 Caldecott Honor Book and a Geisel Honor Book. It was only the second time any author has won that combination of awards.
Molly Garrett Bang is an American illustrator. For her illustration of children's books she has been a runner-up for the American Caldecott Medal three times and for the British Greenaway Medal once. Announced June 2015, her 1996 picture book Goose is the 2016 Phoenix Picture Book Award winner – that is, named by the Children's Literature Association the best English-language children's picture book that did not win a major award when it was published twenty years earlier.
The Charlotte Zolotow Award is an American literary award presented annually for outstanding writing in a picture book published in the United States during the preceding year. By contrast, the Caldecott Medal is for outstanding illustration in a picture book. The Zolotow award was established in 1998 by the Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education and named to honor the work of Charlotte Zolotow, an American children's book editor and author. Ms. Zolotow worked with Harper Junior Books for 38 years during which time she wrote more than 70 picture books. Zolotow attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison on a writing scholarship from 1933 to 36. The Cooperative Children's Book Center is a children's literature library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Elisha Cooper is an American writer and children's book author. Cooper went to Foote School and Hopkins School in Connecticut. After graduating from Yale, he worked for The New Yorker as a messenger. In 2016 he was a Maurice Sendak Fellow, a residency program for illustrators.
Helen Gillian Oxenbury is an English illustrator and writer of children's picture books. She lives in North London. She has twice won the annual Kate Greenaway Medal, the British librarians' award for illustration and been runner-up four times. For the 50th anniversary of that Medal (1955–2005) her 1999 illustrated edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was named one of the top ten winning works.
Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad is a novel for children written by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by Alan Lee, and published (posthumously) by Frances Lincoln in 1993. Partly based on the Iliad, the book retells the story of the Trojan War, from the birth of Paris to the building of the Trojan Horse. For his part Lee won the annual Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognizing the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject.
The Esther Glen Award, or LIANZA Esther Glen Junior Fiction Award, is the longest running and the most renowned literary prize for New Zealand children's literature.
Candace Groth Fleming is an American writer of children's books, both fiction and non-fiction. She is the author of more than twenty books for children and young adults, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-honored The Family Romanov and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award-winning biography, The Lincolns, among others.
Meg Medina is an American children’s book author of Cuban descent whose books celebrate Latino culture and the lives of young people. She is the 2023 – 2024 National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature. Medina is the recipient of the 2019 John Newbery Medal for her middle grade novel, Merci Suárez Changes Gears and the Pura Belpré Award for Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass (2014) and the Pura Belpré Award Honor Book in 2016 for Mango, Abuela and Me).
Gavin John Bishop is an author and illustrator, from Invercargill, New Zealand. He is known for illustrating books from prominent New Zealand authors, including Joy Cowley and Margaret Mahy. Bishop's first published picture book was Mrs McGinty and the Bizarre Plant, published in 1981 by Oxford University Press.
Mara Rockliff is an American author of children's books specializing in works based on true stories. Her book Mesmerized: How Ben Franklin Solved a Mystery that Baffled All of France won an Orbis Pictus Honor from the National Council of Teachers of English. The American Library Association selected her book Sweet Justice: Georgia Gilmore and the Montgomery Bus Boycott for a Sibert Honor. She also received the Golden Kite Award for Me and Momma and Big John.
