Washington, D.C.  -  Today, U.S. Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) announced that the Moniteau Junior-Senior High School Library in Butler County, Conneaut Lake Elementary School in Crawford County, East High School Library in Erie County and the Community Library of the Shenango Library in Mercer County received this year’s National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) We the People Bookshelf program award. The library will receive 17 classic books on the theme of “Created Equal.”

“Reading expands the minds of children and adults alike,” English said. “It allows us to use our imaginations and helps develop critical thinking skills. The We the People Bookshelf award will give the local community a chance to come together, read and share our own accounts and stories on the concept of equality in America.”

“The We the People Bookshelf introduces young readers to important literature and promotes the understanding of vital ideas in our nation’s history,” said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. “Through the power of these stories millions of young readers will have the opportunity to examine the central tenet of our American identity: that all human beings ‘are created equal.’”

The We the People Bookshelf program will distribute three thousand sets of books to neighborhood and public school libraries, as well as private schools, charter schools, tribal schools, and military schools in all 50 states. Each library will receive a set of the 17 books, posters, bookmarks, and other promotional materials from the 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 bookshelf program is part of the NEH’s We the People program, which supports projects that strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. The books selected for the “Created Equal” Bookshelf include several on Abraham Lincoln to facilitate programming for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial over the next year.  These include a “History in a Box” collection of resource materials on Lincoln developed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American history.

For more information visit: http://www.neh.gov/

List of Books Awarded follows:         

The We the People "Created Equal" Bookshelf contains the following books:

Kindergarten to Grade 3
The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, illustrated by Michael McCurdy
Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco
Pink y Say by Patricia Polacco (translated by Alejandra López Varela)

Grades 4 to 6
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
Give Me Liberty!  The Story of the Declaration of Independence by Russell Freedman
Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman
Many Thousand Gone:  African Americans from Slavery to Freedom by Virginia Hamilton
Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
Lyddie by Katherine Paterson (translated by Rosa Benavides)

Grades 7 to 8
Saturnalia by Paul Fleishman
Freedom Walkers:  The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman
Abraham Lincoln the Writer:  A Treasury of His Greatest Speeches And Letters edited by Harold Holzer
Breaking Through by Francisco Jiménez
Senderos Fronterizos by  Francisco Jiménez  (translated by Francisco Jiménez)

Grades 9 to 12
Abigail Adams:  Witness to a Revolution  by Natalie S. Bober
That All People May Be One People, Send Rain to Wash the Face of the Earth by Nez Perce Chief Joseph
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Flores para Algernon by Daniel Keyes (translated by Paz Barroso)
Lincoln’s Virtues:  An Ethical Biography by William Lee Miller
Amistad: A Novel by David Pesci

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