Phoenix Picture Book Award

The Children's Literature Association Phoenix Picture Book Award recognizes an exemplary picture book that conveys its story (whether fact or fiction) through the synergy between pictures and text, or through pictures alone if there is no text.  First presented in 2013, the Phoenix Picture Book Award will be given to the author and/or illustrator, or the estate of the author and/or illustrator of a book for children first published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award at the time of its publication but which, from the perspective of time, is deemed worthy of special attention. 

NOMINATION FORM

Submission Period:

• Anyone may nominate a picture book by the deadline of October 1 of each year.
• The committee meets during the ChLA Annual Conference to prepare the shortlist and begin its final deliberations for the award.
• Be aware, the committee reads one year in advance. So, for example, all nominations for the 2024 award must be received in 2023.
• The award honors a picture book published twenty years prior. See more detail in the Selection Criteria below.

Selection Criteria:

• The award goes to a book published twenty years before the annual conference at which it is awarded. The 2024 award, for example, will be for a book published in 2004.

• The book must have been originally published in English.

• The book must not have won a major award although it may have been a finalist, honor book, runner-up, or commended, whatever term is used. A book is ineligible for consideration if it has won any one of the following awards or prizes:
  • Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award
  • Boston Globe-Horn Book Award
  • Governor General's Literary Awards
  • Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award
  • Carnegie Medal
  • Kate Greenaway Medal
  • Coretta Scott King Award
  • New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children & Young Adults
  • Caldecott Medal or Caldecott Honor
  • Other major awards may be added in future years.

• The book may be a retelling or an edited work, such as an anthology, not simply a reprinting or new edition.

• The book is to be judged on the effectiveness of the interaction (synergy) of pictures and text (if there is text) to tell a story (whether fact or fiction).  Excellence of illustrations and text will be considered secondarily. A picture book is defined as a work that is primarily a visual experience that shows respect for the understanding of a child audience.

• The book does not have to be in print.

• The author or illustrator does not have to be alive.

• Anyone may nominate a book, with the practical deadline being the conference at which the committee begins its final deliberations for the award. For example, all nominations for the 2013 award must be received by the 2012 conference.

• If the Phoenix Award Committee finds no book suitable for the award, it need not be given in that year.

• Honor books may be but are not necessarily designated.

• The Award winner must be selected at the annual conference of the year before that in which the award is given. For example, the award that is announced and presented at the 2013 ChLA annual conference will be chosen at the 2012 conference.

The Children's Literature Association Proudly Announces the 2024 Phoenix Picture Book Award Recipient:

Brenda C. Roberts and Frank Morrison for Jazzy Miz Mozetta (Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2004)

2023 Phoenix Picture Book Honor Books:

Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake for Michael Rosen’s Sad Book (Walker, 2004)

Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier for John’s Secret Dreams: The Life of John Lennon (Hyperion, 2004)

Previous Winners:

The Children's Literature Association Proudly Announces the 2024 Phoenix Picture Book Award Recipient:

Brenda C. Roberts and Frank Morrison for Jazzy Miz Mozetta (Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2004)

2024 Phoenix Picture Book Honor Books:

Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake for Michael Rosen’s Sad Book (Walker, 2004)

Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier for John’s Secret Dreams: The Life of John Lennon (Hyperion, 2004)