York Public Library receives NEH "We the People Bookshelf" award
YORK VILLAGE - The National Endowment for the Humanities recently announced it has awarded free copies of classic books to 2,000 public and school libraries across the nation, including the York Public Library.
The York Public Library is one of only seven in the state of Maine that will receive 15 classic books on the theme of the "Pursuit of Happiness" from the "We the People Bookshelf" project. As part of the award, libraries will be organizing programs or events to raise awareness of these classic books and engage young readers.
"Libraries serve as a nexus of knowledge and ideas for our citizens and students," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. "With this year's ‘We the People Bookshelf,' a library's young readers will 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 "We the People" program supports projects that strengthen the teaching, study and understanding of American history and culture, according to the NEH.
This year's "Pursuit of Happiness" series contains "Aesop's Fables" by Aesop; "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost, and "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" by Virginia Lee Burton for grades K through 3; "Tuck Everlasting" 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 for grades 4 through 6; "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle; "Esperanza Rising" by Pam Muñoz Ryan, and "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham for grades 7 and 8, and "Kindred" by Octavia Butler; "O Pioneers!" by Willa Cather; "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald; "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman, and "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine for grades 9 through 12.
Each award recipient will receive the set of books with four additional books in Spanish translation, the musical CD "Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder," posters, bookmarks and other promotional materials from NEH through the American Library Association (ALA), which is working in partnership with the endowment. Scholastic, Inc., donated copies of the books "Journal of Wong Ming-Chung" and "Esperanza Rising" for this project.
For more, visit http://www.neh.gov/.
