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
Alectryon (mythology) corrupted from Halaka, one of the old Persian appellations of the sun. In the 'Vendidad' it is said that the sacred bird Parodars, called by men "kahrkatak", raises its voice at the dawn; and in the "Bundehasb", the sun is spoken of as Halaka, the cock, the enemy of darkness and evil, which flee before his crowing. Alectryon (mythology) Alectryon (Ancient Greek: ἀλεκτρυών) is the Ancient Greek word for "rooster". In Greek mythology, Alectryon was a young soldier who was assigned by Ares to stand guard outside his door while the god indulged in illicit love with Aphrodite. He fell