The Phoenix Award of the Children's Literature Association, 1995-1999

by Alethea Helbig, Agnes Perkins

Overview

The Phoenix Award of The Children's Literature Association annually honors a children's book first published twenty years earlier that deserves special recognition for its literary merit. This volume, third in a set begun with the 1965 award, covers the years 1995 to 1999 and is a mini-library of essays, speeches, bibliographies, and biographical sketches surrounding the five award winners and six honor books. It contains the twenty-four essays presented at the association's annual conference on the Phoenix Award-winning books and on the honor books as well. Information is provided about each author, including a list of his or her works for children, and the acceptance speeches given by the award-winning authors are reprinted. Essay writers include such respected names in children's literature criticism as Jon Stott, Linnea Hendrickson, and Anita Tarr.

This scholarly work is directed to the professions that attend to children's literature—librarians, educators, language scholars, other writers, and parents. It also serves as a guide for all those who care about timeless books and wish to make them available to children and young people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810840140
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	01/01/1993
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.34(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Alethea Helbig, Professor, and Agnes Perkins, Professor Emeritus, English Language and Literature, Eastern Michigan University, have taught and published children's literature for many years and were instrumental in initiating master's and undergraduate programs in children's literature at Eastern Michigan. Perkins has served on the Phoenix selection committee, and Helbig has chaired the committee from its inception and is a past president of ChLA. They have published a series of encyclopedia works on fiction for children published by Greenwood and have also compiled three poetry anthologies (with Helen Hill; Crowell). Both have published numerous articles on children's literature and are working on supplements to the dictionaries of children's fiction and a book on multicultural imaginative literature for young people.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	ix
	Introduction	xiii
	The Winners and the Honor Books of The Children's Literature Association Phoenix Award, 1995-1999	xvii
	The 1995 Phoenix Award Winner: Dragonwings	1
	Acceptance	3
	Biographical Sketch of Laurence Yep	9
	Books by Laurence Yep	11
	Dragonwings: Reading as Translation	13
	Sweetwater: The Music of the Heart and of Darkness	19
	The Outsider in Laurence Yep's Serpent Trilogy	25
	The 1995 Phoenix Award Honor Book: Tuck Everlasting	33
	Biographical Sketch of Natalie Babbitt	35
	Books by Natalie Babbitt	36
	Power, Freedom, and Imprisonment in Tuck Everlasting	37
	The 1996 Phoenix Award Winner: The Stone Book	43
	Acceptance	45
	Biographical Sketch of Alan Garner	53
	Books by Alan Garner	55
	Paradox and Synthesis in Alan Garner's The Stone Book Quartet	57
	Awareness of Place: Landscape in The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath	61
	"Why Must She See Owls and Not Flowers?": Gendered Myth in The Owl Service	67
	Red Shift's Mythic Examination of Myth	71
	The 1996 Phoenix Award Honor Book: Abel's Island	77
	Biographical Sketch of William Steig	79
	Books by William Steig	81
	Abel's Island: From Possession to Vocation	83
	The 1997 Phoenix Award Winner: I Am the Cheese	89
	Acceptance	91
	Looking Backward While Going Forward	93
	Biographical Sketch of Robert Cormier	107
	Books by Robert Cormier	109
	The Age of Cheese: Readers Respond to Cormier	111
	Truth, Fiction, and the Impossible in Robert Cormier's The Bumble Bee Flies Anyway and Fade	119
	A Stranger in a World Unmade: Landscape in Robert Cormier's Chocolate War Novels	127
	Tunes for Bears to Dance To: Prayers and Silence	133
	Peace, Justice, and Liberation Theology in After the First Death	139
	The 1998 Phoenix Award Winner: A Chance Child	145
	Acceptance	147
	Biographical Sketch of Jill Paton Walsh	155
	Books by Jill Paton Walsh	157
	A Distant Mirror: Jill Paton Walsh's A Chance Child and the Invisible Children of the Twentieth Century	159
	"You Will Weep and Know Why": Jill Paton Walsh's Goldengrove and Unleaving	165
	Displacement and Assimilation in Jill Paton Walsh's The Emperor's Winding Sheet	173
	The 1998 Phoenix Award Honor Book: Beauty	181
	Biographical Sketch of Robin McKinley	183
	Books by Robin McKinley	185
	Beauty: The Honor of Belief	187
	The 1998 Phoenix Award Honor Book: The Devil in Vienna	193
	Biographical Sketch of Doris Orgel	195
	Books by Doris Orgel	197
	Real and True Feelings about The Devil in Vienna: An Interview with Doris Orgel	199
	The 1999 Phoenix Award Winner: Throwing Shadows	207
	Acceptance	209
	Biographical Sketch of E. L. Konigsburg	211
	Books by E. L. Konigsburg	213
	Throwing Shadows and the Unity of Effect	215
	The Paradox of Knowing	221
	Aliens in Their Own Land: E. L. Konigsburg's T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT and Suit	227
	The 1999 Phoenix Award Honor Book: The Disappearance	235
	Biographical Sketch of Rosa Guy	237
	Books by Rosa Guy	239
	Imamu's Search for Mother in Rosa Guy's The Disappearance	241
	The 1999 Phoenix Honor Book: Words by Heart	247
	Biographical Sketch of Ouida Sebestyen	249
	Books by Ouida Sebestyen	251
	The Magic of Memory: Revival of the Lost by Remembering in Ouida Sebestyen's Words by Heart	253
	About the Editors	259

Editorial Reviews

This is a fascinating evaluation and promotion of high quality in writing for children.

School Librarian

The opportunity to hear about the genesis of each work and to see into the mind and feelings of its author is a particularly strong and effective aspect of this book. The essays about other works by the award-winning authors are useful in extending the context and characteristics of each author and offer a wider perspective...graceful and insightful.

Children's Literature Association Quarterly

The opportunity to hear about the genesis of each work and to see into the mind and feelings of its author is a particularly strong and effective aspect of this book. The essays about other works by the award-winning authors are useful in extending the context and characteristics of each author and offer a wider perspective...graceful and insightful.--Children's Literature Association Quarterly

The multiple perspectives of the authors and academics combine to provide valuable insights for anyone interested in the critical study of children's literature...Libraries owning the previous volumes will certainly want this one; libraries without the previous volumes might consider buying all three.--School Library Journal

This is a fascinating evaluation and promotion of high quality in writing for children.--School Librarian

From the Publisher

Each year the Phoenix Award honors the author of a "book published twenty years earlier that did not win a major award at the time of its publication, but that, from the perspective of time, is deemed worthy of special recognition for its high literary quality." Since 1985, this unusual and important award has been given by the Children's Literature Association, an affiliate of the Modern Language Association. This volume, which includes an acceptance speech given at the Association's annual conference, a biographical sketch, and bibliography for each award winner or honor book, as well as all the scholarly papers presented at the conference banquet, is the third in a series. The five authors discussed in this volume are: Laurence Yep, Robert Cormier, Alan Garner, Jill Paton Walsh, and E. L. Konigsburg. Authors of honor books are: Natalie Babbitt, William Steig, Robin McKinley, Doris Orgel, Rosa Guy, and Ouida Sebestyen. The multiple perspectives of the authors and academics combine to provide valuable insights for anyone interested in the critical study of children's literature. No other award celebrates books that have stood the test of time. Libraries owning the previous volumes will certainly want this one; libraries without the previous volumes might consider buying all three.-Margaret A. Chang, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, North Adams Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

The Phoenix Award is given to the author of a children's book that was first published 20 years earlier and is deserving of recognition for its high literary merit. This volume, the third in a series, provides information on the 11 winners and honor books from 1995 through 1999. Each chapter includes a biographical sketch of the author, a selection of criticism of the winning work, a list of all the author's books for children, and the author's acceptance speech. Writers covered in this volume are Lawrence Yep (), Natalie Babbitt (), Alan Garner (), William Steig (), Robert Cormier (), Jill Paton Walsh (), Robin McKinley (), Doris Orgel (), E.L. Konigsburg (), Rosa Guy (), and Ouida Sebestyen (). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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