The Phoenix Award annually recognizes one English-language children's bookpublished twenty years earlier that did not then win a major literary award. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix, which is reborn from its own ashes, signifying the book's rise from relative obscurity.[1]
The award was established and is conferred by the Children's Literature Association (ChLA), a non-profit organization for the advancement of "the serious study of children's literature", based in the United States. The winner is selected by an elected committee of five ChLA members, from nominations by members and outsiders. The token is a brass statue.[1]
It was inaugurated in 1985 by the award to Rosemary Sutcliff and The Mark of the Horse Lord (Oxford, 1965). Beginning 1989, as many as two runners up have been designated "Honor Books"; thirty in 24 years through 2012.[2]

Latest rendition
The 28th annual Phoenix Award was presented June 16, 2012, at the ChLA Conference, Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts.[3]
2012[1]
Karen Hesse, Letters from Rifka (Henry Holt and Company, 1992)
• Honor Book: Michael Dorris, Morning Girl (Hyperion Books, 1992)
• Honor Book: Frances Temple, Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti (Orchard Books, 1992)
Letters from Rifka is a historical novel based partly on the experiences of the author's great-aunt. It features a 12-year-old Jewish girl and her family, first in Russia and then in 1919–1920 flight to America.
Morning Girl is set in pre-Columbian America; twenty years ago it won the Scott O'Dell award for historical fiction. Taste of Salt is set in Haiti during the democracy movement led by Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Previous winners and runners up
There have been 28 Award winners and 30 Honor Books through 2012.[2]

Year	Winner	Honor Books
2012	Karen Hesse, Letters from Rifka	Michael Dorris, Morning Girl Frances Temple, Taste of Salt: A Story of Modern Haiti
2011‡	Virginia Euwer Wolff, The Mozart Season	Mary Downing Hahn, Stepping on the Cracks Eloise McGraw, The Striped Ships
2010	Rosemary Sutcliff, The Shining Company
2009	Francesca Lia Block, Weetzie Bat	Sylvia Cassedy, Lucie Babbidge’s House
2008‡	Peter Dickinson, Eva	Jane Yolen, The Devil's Arithmetic
2007	Margaret Mahy, Memory	Sheila Gordon, Waiting for the Rain
2006	Diana Wynne Jones, Howl's Moving Castle	Margaret Mahy, The Tricksters Philip Pullman, The Shadow in the Plate(The Shadow in the North)
2005	Margaret Mahy, The Catalogue of the Universe	Diana Wynne Jones, Fire and Hemlock
2004‡	Berlie Doherty, White Peak Farm	Brian Doyle, Angel Square
2003	Ivan Southall, The Long Night Watch	Cynthia Voigt, A Solitary Blue
2002‡	ZibbyOneal, A Formal Feeling	Clayton Bess, Story for a Black Night
2001‡	Peter Dickinson, The Seventh Raven	Kathryn Lasky, The Night Journey
2000‡	Monica Hughes, Keeper of the Isis Light	Jane Langton, The Fledgling
1999	E.L. Konigsburg, Throwing Shadows	Rosa Guy, The Disappearance Ouida Sebestyen, Words by Heart
1998	Jill Paton Walsh, A Chance Child	Robin McKinley, Beauty Doris Orgel, The Devil in Vienna
1997	Robert Cormier, I Am the Cheese
1996	Alan Garner, The Stone Book	William Steig, Abel's Island
1995	Laurence Yep, Dragonwings	Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting
1994	Katherine Paterson, Of Nightingales That Weep	James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier, My Brother Sam is Dead Sharon Bell Mathis, Listen for the Fig Tree
1993	Nina Bawden, Carrie's War	E.L. Konigsburg, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver
1992	Mollie Hunter, A Sound of Chariots
1991	Jane Gardam, A Long Way from Verona	William Mayne, A Game of Dark Ursula K. Le Guin, The Tombs of Atuan
1990	Sylvia Engdahl, Enchantress from the Stars	William Mayne, Ravensgill Scott O'Dell, Sing Down the Moon
1989	Helen Cresswell, The Night Watchmen	Milton Meltzer, Brother Can You Spare a Dime? Adrienne Richard, Pistol
1988	Erik Christian Haugaard, The Rider and his Horse
1987	Leon Garfield, Smith
1986	Robert J. Burch, Queenie Peavy
1985	Rosemary Sutcliff, The Mark of the Horse Lord

‡ Six acceptance speeches have been published online (five each in two locations):[1][4] Monica Hughes, 2000; Peter Dickinson, 2001; ZibbyOneal, 2002; Berlie Doherty, 2004; Peter Dickinson, 2008; Virginia Euwer Wolff, 2011.

Multiple awards
Three authors have won two of the 28 Phoenix Awards through 2012.
• Rosemary Sutcliff, 1985, 2010
• Peter Dickinson, 2001, 2008
• Margaret Mahy, 2005, 2007
Mahy of New Zealand was also a runner up in 2006.
A number 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).