We the People Bookshelf

About We the People Apply for a Grant Picturing America Bookshelf

Funded Projects Newsroom We the People Home NEH Home

Created Equal

The deadline for this program has passed.
Guidelines for We the People Bookshelf on a new theme will be available in September 2008.

The American nation, observed Abraham Lincoln, was “conceived in liberty
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

The “Created Equal” Bookshelf provides opportunities for young people to explore what the Revolutionary generation meant when it declared that “all men are created equal.” What challenges has America faced, and where has it shown progress, in its efforts to live up to the ideal of universal human equality? How did Abraham Lincoln, whose bicentennial we celebrate in 2009, contribute to the idea and the reality of human equality in America?

In this, the fifth We the People Bookshelf program, 3,000 libraries will receive a set of classic books related to the “Created Equal” theme. The National Endowment for the Humanities is proud to offer this program in cooperation with the American Library Association.

Who can apply?

Any U.S. public library or K-12 school library in the United States and its territories. School libraries include public, private, parochial, and charter schools. Libraries with collections that circulate to the general public and offer reading-based programs for the general public are eligible to apply. A library system or school district may apply on behalf of its member schools or branches. Go to publicprograms.ala.org/bookshelf/ for guidelines and eligibility requirements.

Library will receive:

The Bookshelf—a collection of seventeen classic hardcover books for young readers, all related to the Created Equal theme.  In addition, libraries will receive four of these books in Spanish translation, a bonus “History in a Box” resource kit created by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and supplementary materials for programming, including bookplates, boomarks, and posters.  NEH will award a “Created Equal” Bookshelf to 3,000 school (K-12) and public libraries in spring 2007.

Books selected for the “Created Equal” Bookshelf are:

Kindergarten to Grade 3

  • The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen
  • The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
  • Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco
  • Pink Y Say by Patricia Polacco (translated by Alejandra Lopez Varela)

Grades 4 to 6

  • Saturnalia by Paul Fleischman
  • 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

  • Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
  • Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman
  • Abraham Lincoln the Writer: A Treasury of His Greatest Speeches and Letters ed. by Harold Holzer
  • Breaking Through by Francisco Jiménez
  • Senderos Fronterizos: Breaking Through Spanish Edition 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

Bonus :

History in a Box resource materials on Abraham Lincoln developed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, including a resource book, CD, interactive CD-ROM, and posters featuring primary source documents, photographs, artwork, maps, songs, and other teaching resources.

NEH selected these books in consultation with members of the ALA and members of the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), a division of the ALA.

To apply:

To apply for the“Created Equal” Bookshelf, read the guidelines and complete the simple online application process at publicprograms.ala.org/Bookshelf.

Learn more about the We the People Bookshelf project.

Ugly Duckling
Illustration by Robert Ingpen © 2005. Used by permission of Minedition, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group.


Gettysburg Address
Illustration by Michael McCurdy © 1995, published 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

 

Many Thousand Gone
Illustration by Leo and Diane Dillon © 1993, published 1993 by Alfred A. Knopf

 

Chief Joseph
Chief Joseph by Burbank, E.A. (Elbridge Ayer), artist, 1899, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress