The Children's Literature Association Proudly Announces the 2016 Phoenix Award Recipient:

Frindle by Andrew Clements

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1996

Aladdin Paperbacks, 1996

A "frindle"--according to Urban Dictionary, AllWords.com, Merriam-Webster online, and other sources--is a pen. The word first appeared in Andrew Clements's 1996 novel, featuring Nick Allen, whose clever "thought grenades" aim at getting teachers off topic. He meets his match in his fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Granger. When she assigns a report on where the words in dictionaries come from, Nick takes the subject seriously, creating a new word for pen.   Soon all the kids are using Nick's neologism. Despite Mrs. Granger's objections, the word frindle quickly gets attention beyond the classroom, throughout the city,  the country, and the rest of the world. Clements captures the spirit of authentic learning and celebrates the pleasure and power of language. Frindle also demonstrates how a good teacher can inspire students and, more important, how a single person can change the world.  The children's book world--indeed, the whole world--needs more troublemakers like Nick, more decent parents like the Allens, and more "villains" like Mrs. Granger. 

The Children's Literature Association Proudly Announces the 2016 Phoenix Picture Book Award Recipient:

Goose by Molly Bang
Blue Sky Press, 1996

The charm and strength of this book is its simplicity, marked by the qualities of a master story-teller/illustrator in one. An important revision of “The Ugly Duckling,” this animal fable of finding oneself centers on belonging and acceptance, not looks. Though the anguish is similar, the morals here are quite unlike Andersen’s. The torment comes from within rather than without, and is conveyed through clever use of varied frames, layout, and nuanced use of white space. Bang’s oil paintings of various sizes emphasize the symbolic and emotional tenor of goose’s heterogeneous family life, and the book’s theme. The natural palette and textured brush-strokes render the vitality of flora and fauna—from raindrops to feathers, to fur, to waves—and earth, water, and sky tones set the mood. A small package filled with qualities to savor, this book is quiet, profound, humorous and beautiful.

2016 Phoenix Picture Book Honor Book

Sam and the Tigers by Julius Lester
illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
Dial Books, 1996

Sam and the Tigers is a venturesome collaboration: a re-telling of Little Black Sambo that abrogates with the past in language and image. Lester’s narrator’s flair for language play is matched by young Sam’s flamboyant sense for finery. Pinkney’s illustrations stretch across the pages in splendid detail. The landscape is alive and expressive, with faces in the trees and critters observing the exchanges between Sam and the five formidable tigers. The full drama of the story plays out in word and gesture, as sound and movement are evoked in fluid combination. This book is the best kind of audacious.