The Phoenix Award

THE PHOENIX AWARD is given to the author, or the estate of the author, of a book for children first published twenty years earlier which did not win a major award at the time of its publication but which, from the perspective of time, is deemed worthy of special recognition for its literary quality. The Recipient of THE 1987 PHOENIX AWARD SMITH by Leon Garfield (Constable, 1967; Pantheon, 1967; Penguin, 1968; Dell Yearling, 1987) Scrawny, scroungy 18th century London street urchin Smith picks an old gentleman's pocket of a document, then observes the man killed for the very paper Smith now possesses, whose contents ironically, being illiterate, he cannot read. His efforts to learn to read and to evade the assassins hot on his trail lead him through a convoluted, action-filled, carefully controlled Dickensian plot. It offers a full measure of amazing characters, close encounters, treachery, connivance, and villainy, for grandly entertaining and thematically provocative reading from suspenseful beginning to surprising and thoroughly satisfying conclusion. Previous Winners The Mark of the Horse Lord by Rosemary Sutcirff (Walch, 1965; Oxford, 1975; Penguin, 1983) Queenle Peaw by Robert Burch (Viking, 1966; Dell Yearling, 1975) Each year an elected committee of ChLA members considers nominations made by members and others interested in promoting high critical standards in literature for children. The 1987 Phoenix Award Committee members are Alethea Helbig, Chair, Eastern Michigan University; Mary Ake, Littleton, Colorado, Public Schools; Agnes Perkins, Eastern Michigan University; Peter Neumeyer, San Diego State University; and Mark West, University of North Carolina-Charlotte. 19 ...