I Am the Cheese he was confused and depressed, convinced that he was alienating his new young adult audience because of the complex and ambiguous story. However, "I Am the Cheese" proved to be a success. "I Am the Cheese" was named to five annual book lists according to the publisher description of the 20th anniversary edition. It won the 1997 Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association as the best English-language children's book that did not win a major award when it was originally published twenty years earlier. It is named for the mythical bird phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, to
Birds in Chinese mythology a Three-legged crow. The Qingniao is associated with the Queen Mother of the West, bearing her messages or bringing her food (Yang 2005, 219 and Christie 1968, 78). Some birds feature as part of visions of the mythological geography of China. According to the "Shanhaijing" and it's commentaries, the Bifang can be found on Mount Zhang'e and/or east of the Feathered People (Youmin) and west of the Blue River (Strassberg 2002, 110 and 163) Certain birds in mythology transport deities, immortals, or others. One example is the Crane in Chinese mythology. Other birds include the Bi Fang bird, a one-legged