Francesca Lia Block Wins Phoenix Award
By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 6/27/2008
Francesca Lia Block, author of Weetzie Bat (HarperCollins), about an offbeat heroine who shares a Hollywood cottage with three equally quirky companions, is winner of the 1989/2009 Phoenix Award, given to the author of an English-language children’s book that failed to win a major award at the time of its publication 20 earlier.
Sylvia Cassedy’s Lucie Babbidge’s House (Lippincott), a tale that alternates between Lucie’s everyday cruelty of school life and what appears to be her home life, was also named a Phoenix Honor.
Both winners were announced earlier this month in Illinois at the annual conference of the Children’s Literature Association (ChLA) , an organization that encourages high standards of criticism, scholarship, research, and teaching in children’s literature.
The Phoenix Award is named after the fabled bird that 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,” says ChLA.
Recipients of the award are chosen each year by an elected committee of association members who consider nominations made by members and others interested in promoting high standards in children’s literature.
This year’s award committee included Karen Coats of Illinois State University; Claudia Mills of the University of Colorado in Boulder; Marilynn Olson of Texas State University in San Marcos; Priscilla Ord of McDaniel College; and Donna White of Arkansas Tech University.
More information about the Children’s Literature Association, and a complete list of Phoenix Award winners, can be found on the association’s Web site.
