Phoenix Award

NOMINATIONS FORM

The Children's Literature Association, an organization of teachers, scholars, librarians, editors, writers, illustrators, and parents interested in encouraging the serious study of children's literature, created the Phoenix Award as an outgrowth of the Association's Touchstones Committee. The award, given to a book originally published in the English language, is intended to recognize books of high literary merit, which never won award at the time publication, and which is still worthy of recognition. The Phoenix Award is named after the fabled bird who rose from its ashes with renewed life and beauty. Phoenix books also rise from the ashes of neglect and obscurity and once again touch the imaginations and enrich the lives of those who read them.

The recipient of the Phoenix Award has been chosen each year since 1985 by an elected committee of ChLA members that considers nominations made by members and others interested in promoting high critical standards in literature for children. Honor books were instituted in 1989 but have not been named every year.

The Phoenix Award was designed by Caldecott-winning illustrator Trina Schart Hyman. The magical Phoenix on the award statue was specifically drawn for ChLA. The design was sculpted by Diane Davis, who was trained at the Johnson Atelier and Technical Institute of Sculpture, Princeton. Each brass statue is individually cast and inscribed with the year's winner.

In 2003, the ChLA launched an electronic journal, The Phoenix Award Papers. Each issue includes conference papers on the year's Phoenix Award book and Honor book, and the acceptance speech (when available) by the award winner. The Phoenix Papers from 2000 through 2010 are available exclusively online through the Phoenix Papers page.

We are now taking nominations for book that were published in 2002 and after.

The Children's Literature Association Proudly Announces the 2020 Phoenix Award Recipient:

Many Stones by Carolyn Coman
Namelos, 2000

Many Stones is a book about weight – the weight of stones, the weight of grief, the weight of history.  Coman’s writing offers nuanced insights, minute by minute, into a vexed father-daughter relationship in the painful aftermath of the murder of Berry’s older sister. During a trip to South Africa for the memorial service, Berry and her father see their American affluence and privilege in a new way. The novel explores the country’s ongoing racism and poverty, legacy of its past, and hopes for a healing future, while always keeping the focus on Berry’s struggles to have her own moments of “truth and reconciliation.” The parallels are kept from being heavy-handed by Berry’s scathingly honest voice. In this vividly realized South African setting, a former prisoner held with Nelson Mandela shares what helped him to survive: "'You have to have stories,' he says. He says it so fiercely that I hold my breath. He shakes his tightened fist as if it holds all the stories that were taken out of all the letters, and then he doesn't say any more."

2020 Phoenix Honor Book: 

145th Street: Short Stories by Walter Dean Myers
Ember, 2000

Once again Walter Dean Myers honors Harlem in this place-centered collection of fourteen linked short stories. 145^th Street interweaves voices and tones, offering both a tight focus on place and a broad range of personalities. Some stories are lighthearted: in one, Big Joe throws himself a funeral, so he can enjoy it while alive; in another, a high school basketball player worries about wasting a streak of good luck. Others present haunting depictions of violence. Throughout, we meet a cast of characters, from young to very old as they face challenges, celebrate triumphs, and care for each other. Myers crafts a neighborhood epic – heartbreaking and funny -- in which each voice is a crucial part of 145^th Street.