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]
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)[d] | 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 |
