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.
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.
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 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."
There have been 35 Award winners and 35 Honor Books announced since 1985 (1965 to 1998 publications).
| 1985 | Winner | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Queenie Peavy | Winner | ||
| 1987 | Smith | Winner | ||
| 1988 | Winner | |||
| 1989 | Winner | |||
| Brother Can You Spare a Dime? | Honor | |||
| Pistol | Honor | |||
| 1990 | Enchantress from the Stars | Winner | ||
| Ravensgill | Honor | |||
| Sing Down the Moon | Honor | |||
| 1991 | Winner | |||
| Honor | ||||
| Honor | ||||
| 1992 | Winner | |||
| 1993 | Carrie's War | Winner | ||
| Honor | ||||
| 1994 | Of Nightingales That Weep | Winner | ||
| and Christopher Collier | My Brother Sam is Dead | Honor | ||
| Listen for the Fig Tree | Honor | |||
| 1995 | Dragonwings | Winner | ||
| Tuck Everlasting | Honor | |||
| 1996 | Winner | |||
| Abel's Island | Honor | |||
| 1997 | I Am the Cheese | Winner | ||
| 1998 | Winner | |||
| Beauty | Honor | |||
| Honor | ||||
| 1999 | Throwing Shadows | Winner | ||
| Honor | ||||
| Words by Heart | Honor | |||
| 2000 | Keeper of the Isis Light | Winner | ||
| Honor | ||||
| 2001 | Winner | |||
| Honor | ||||
| 2002 | Winner | |||
| Story for a Black Night | Honor | |||
| 2003 | Winner | |||
| Honor | ||||
| 2004 | White Peak Farm | Winner | ||
| Angel Square | Honor | |||
| 2005 | Winner | |||
| Fire and Hemlock | Honor | |||
| 2006 | Howl's Moving Castle | Winner | ||
| Honor | ||||
| Honor | ||||
| 2007 | Memory | Winner | ||
| Waiting for the Rain | Honor | |||
| 2008 | Eva | Winner | ||
| Honor | ||||
| 2009 | Weetzie Bat | Winner | ||
| Lucie Babbidge’s House | Honor | |||
| 2010 | Winner | |||
| 2011 | Winner | |||
| Stepping on the Cracks | Honor | |||
| Honor | ||||
| 2012 | Letters from Rifka | Winner | ||
| Morning Girl | Honor | |||
| Honor | ||||
| 2013 | Winner | |||
| Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary | Honor | |||
| 2014 | Jesse | Winner | ||
| Under the Blood Red Sun | Honor | |||
| 2015 | One Bird | Winner | ||
| 2016 | Frindle | Winner | ||
| 2017 | Wish Me Luck | Winner | ||
| Seedfolks | Honor | |||
| Habibi | Honor | |||
| 2018 | Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange | Winner | ||
| 2019 | Winner | |||
| Imani All Mine | Honor | |||
| 2020 | Many Stones | Winner | ||
| 145th Street: Short Stories | Honor | |||
| 2021 | Finding Grace | Winner | ||
| Whale Talk | Honor | |||
| Any Small Goodness | Honor | |||
| 2022 | When the Emperor Was Divine | Winner | ||
| When My Name Was Keko | Honor | |||
| 2023 | Walking the Choctaw Road | Winner | ||
| The Wright Sister: Katharine Wright and Her Famous Brothers | Honor |
As of 2021, there have been three two-time winners of the Phoenix Award:
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.
| 2013 | Owen | Winner | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In the Small, Small Pond | Honor | |||
| 2014 | Winner | |||
| , illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky | Swamp Angel | Honor | ||
| Good Night, Gorilla | Honor | |||
| 2015 | My Map Book | Winner | ||
| Would They Love a Lion? | Honor | |||
| , illus. by Stefano Vitale | When the Wind Stops (revised and newly illustrated, 1995) | Honor | ||
| 2016 | Goose | Winner | ||
| , illus. by Jerry Pinkney | Sam and the Tigers | Honor | ||
| 2017 | , illus. by Petra Mathers | Tell Me a Season | Winner | |
| Demi | One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Tale | Honor | ||
| 2018 | and Brian Pinkney | Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella | Winner | |
| , illus. by Robin Preiss Glasser | You Can’t Take A Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum | Honor | ||
| 2019 | Black Cat | Winner | ||
| , illus. by Floyd Cooper | Tree of Hope | Honor | ||
| 2020 | Winner | |||
| Wings | Honor | |||
| 2021 | Dim Sum for Everyone! | Winner | ||
| , illus. by Maya Christina Gonzalez | Iguanas in the Snow and Other Winter Poems/Iguanas en la nieve y otros poemas de inviero | Honor | ||
| Honor | ||||
| 2022 | Home of the Brave | Winner | ||
| , illus. by Maya Christina Gonzalez | Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Book? | Honor | ||
| What Charlie Heard | Honor | |||
| , illus. by Joe Cepeda | Why Heaven is Far Away | Honor | ||
| 2023 | Roller Coaster | Winner | ||
| Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book | Honor | |||
| , illus. by Kadir Nelson | Thunder Rose | Honor |