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
Ashes to Ashes (mixtape) But other than one godawful chorus from the Chester French chump, the whole thing comes off slick and professional—more than enough to tide the world over in the brief period between Ross albums." David Amidon of PopMatters gave the mixtape a five out of ten, saying "Obviously, it’s a bit silly to complain about free music, and while Ross feels like a bit player in his own game once again, it mostly works to this tape’s advantage because of his weaknesses on the mic. So "Ashes to Ashes" succeeds in its main goals of keeping Ross in the public eye