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Libraries receive We the People Bookshelf awards for the first time

WASHINGTON, July 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mrs. Lynne Cheney and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Chairman Bruce Cole announced today that the NEH has awarded free copies of classic books to all of the District of Columbia (D.C.) public libraries. They were joined for the announcement by the Chief Librarian of the D.C. Public Libraries, Ginnie Cooper, which was made at the Anacostia Interim Public Library. Each library will receive the 15 classic books on the theme of the "Pursuit of Happiness" from the We the People Bookshelf, along with four titles also offered in Spanish translation.

"Libraries serve as a nexus of knowledge and ideas for our citizens and students," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. "We hope that the awarding of these bookshelves will allow young readers at the District of Columbia's libraries to gain a fuller sense of what the Declaration of Independence means when it asserts that all human beings 'are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'"

The new awards are part of the Endowment's We the People program, which supports projects that strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. The We the People Bookshelf program will distribute 2,000 sets of books to neighborhood and public school libraries, as well as private schools, charter schools, tribal schools, and home school consortia in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each library will receive a set of the 15 books, four additional books in Spanish translation, a musical CD, posters, bookmarks, and other promotional materials from NEH through the American Library Association (ALA), which is working in partnership with the Endowment. As part of the award, libraries are organizing programs or events to raise awareness of these classic books and engage young readers.

The We the People Bookshelf on the "Pursuit of Happiness" contains the following books:

-- Grades K-3: Aesop's Fables by Aesop; Stopping by Woods on a Snowy
Evening by Robert Frost; Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (also in
Spanish translation) by Virginia Lee Burton.

-- Grades 4-6: Tuck Everlasting (also in Spanish translation) by Natalie
Babbitt; The Great Migration by Jacob Lawrence; These Happy Golden
Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder; and Journal of Wong Ming-Chung by
Laurence Yep.

-- Grades 7-8: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; Esperanza Rising
(also in Spanish translation) by Pam Munoz Ryan; and Carry On, Mr.
Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham.

-- Grades 9-12: Kindred by Octavia Butler; O Pioneers! (also in Spanish
translation) by Willa Cather; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald;
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman; and Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

As a bonus, each library receiving a We the People Bookshelf set will receive a music CD, Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder. Scholastic, Inc., generously donated copies of the books Journal of Wong Ming- Chung and Esperanza Rising for this project.

Source: National Endowment for the Humanities

CONTACT: Elissa Pruett of National Endowment for the Humanities,
+1-202-606-8446

Web site:

http://www.neh.gov/

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