Phoenix Award

Template:AboutTemplate:Short description 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.<ref name=award/>

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.<ref name=award/>

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.Template:Efn

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."<ref name=picture/>

Phoenix Award winners

There have been 35 Award winners and 35 Honor Books announced since 1985 (1965 to 1998 publications).<ref name=award/><ref name=brochure2012/><ref name=award2012/><ref name=award2013/>

Phoenix Award 1985 to presentTemplate:Efn

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
1985	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
1986	Template:Sortname	Queenie Peavy	Winner
1987	Template:Sortname	Smith	Winner
1988	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
1989Template:Efn	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Brother Can You Spare a Dime?	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Pistol	Honor
1990	Template:Sortname	Enchantress from the Stars	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Ravensgill	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Sing Down the Moon	Honor
1991	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
1992	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
1993	Template:Sortname	Carrie's War	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
1994	Template:Sortname	Of Nightingales That Weep	Winner
	Template:Sortname and Christopher Collier	My Brother Sam is Dead	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Listen for the Fig Tree	Honor
1995	Template:Sortname	Dragonwings	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Tuck Everlasting	Honor
1996	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Abel's Island	Honor
1997	Template:Sortname	I Am the Cheese	Winner
1998	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Beauty	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
1999	Template:Sortname	Throwing Shadows	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Words by Heart	Honor
2000Template:Efn	Template:Sortname	Keeper of the Isis Light	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
2001Template:Efn	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
2002Template:Efn	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Story for a Black Night	Honor
2003	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
2004Template:Efn	Template:Sortname	White Peak Farm	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Angel Square	Honor
2005	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Fire and Hemlock	Honor
2006	Template:Sortname	Howl's Moving Castle	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
2007	Template:Sortname	Memory	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Waiting for the Rain	Honor
2008	Template:Sortname	Eva	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
2009	Template:Sortname	Weetzie Bat	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Lucie Babbidge’s House	Honor
2010	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
2011Template:Efn	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Stepping on the Cracks	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
2012Template:Efn	Template:Sortname	Letters from Rifka	Winner	<ref name="award2012" />
	Template:Sortname	Morning Girl	Honor	<ref name="award2012" />
	Template:Sortname	Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti	Honor	<ref name="award2012" />
2013	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner	<ref name="award2013" /><ref name="news2012.2" />
	Template:Sortname	Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary	Honor	<ref name="award2013" /><ref name="news2012.2" />
2014	Template:Sortname	Jesse	Winner	<ref name="news2013.2" />
	Template:Sortname	Under the Blood Red Sun	Honor	<ref name="news2013.2" />
2015	Template:Sortname	One Bird	Winner	<ref name="award" />
2016	Template:Sortname	Frindle	Winner
2017	Template:Sortname	Wish Me Luck	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Seedfolks	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Habibi	Honor
2018	Template:Sortname	Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange	Winner
2019	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Imani All Mine	Honor
2020	Template:Sortname	Many Stones	Winner
	Template:Sortname	145th Street: Short Stories	Honor
2021	Template:Sortname	Finding Grace	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Whale Talk	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Any Small Goodness	Honor
2022	Template:Sortname	When the Emperor Was Divine	Winner
	Template:Sortname	When My Name Was Keko	Honor
2023	Template:Sortname	Walking the Choctaw Road	Winner
	Template:Sortname	The Wright Sister: Katharine Wright and Her Famous Brothers	Honor

Multiple awards

As of 2021, there have been three two-time winners of the Phoenix Award:<ref name=brochure2012/>

• 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

The Phoenix Picture Book Award was first given in 2013, for books originally published in 1993.

Phoenix Picture Book Award, 2013 to present<ref name="picture" />

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
2013	Template:Sortname	Owen	Winner	<ref name="news2012.2" />
	Template:Sortname	In the Small, Small Pond	Honor	<ref name="news2012.2" />
2014	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner	<ref name="news2013.2" />
	Template:Sortname, illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky	Swamp Angel	Honor	<ref name="news2013.2" />
	Template:Sortname	Good Night, Gorilla	Honor	<ref name="news2013.2" />
2015	Template:Sortname	My Map Book	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Would They Love a Lion?	Honor
	Template:Sortname, illus. by Stefano Vitale	When the Wind Stops (revised and newly illustrated, 1995)Template:Efn	Honor
2016	Template:Sortname	Goose	Winner
	Template:Sortname, illus. by Jerry Pinkney	Sam and the Tigers	Honor
2017	Template:Sortname, illus. by Petra Mathers	Tell Me a Season	Winner
	Demi	One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Tale	Honor
2018	Template:Sortname and Brian Pinkney	Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella	Winner
	Template:Sortname, illus. by Robin Preiss Glasser	You Can’t Take A Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum	Honor
2019	Template:Sortname	Black Cat	Winner
	Template:Sortname, illus. by Floyd Cooper	Tree of Hope	Honor
2020	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Wings	Honor
2021	Template:Sortname	Dim Sum for Everyone!	Winner
	Template:Sortname, illus. by Maya Christina Gonzalez	Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems/Iguanas en la nieve y otros poemas de inviero	Honor
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sort	Honor
2022	Template:Sortname	Home of the Brave	Winner
	Template:Sortname, illus. by Maya Christina Gonzalez	Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Book?	Honor
	Template:Sortname	What Charlie Heard	Honor
	Template:Sortname, illus. by Joe Cepeda	Why Heaven is Far Away	Honor
2023	Template:Sortname	Roller Coaster	Winner
	Template:Sortname	Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book	Honor
	Template:Sortname, illus. by Kadir Nelson	Thunder Rose	Honor

External links

• Phoenix Award web page
• Phoenix Picture Book Award web page
• 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 Template:Project MUSE, Volume 1 (1976) to present; annual conference Proceedings, 1978 to 1991 only Template:Subscription required – open-access lists of contents include full bibliographic citations for articles and publications searches for authors