Library Awarded Grant of Children's Books on Becoming American

The Seneca Falls Library is proud to announce that it has been chosen as one of 2000 libraries across the nation to be awarded the We the People Bookshelf on Becoming American.

As part of its We the People initiative, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) collaborated with the American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office to present the We the People Bookshelf, a program to encourage young people to read and understand great literature while exploring themes in American history.

The We the People Bookshelf focuses on Becoming American and includes the following titles:

Kindergarten through 3rd Grade:

• The Lotus Seed by Sherry Garland
• Watch the Stars Come Out by Riki Levinson*
• Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

4th Grade through 6th Grade:

• Immigrant Kids by Russell Freedman
• The People Could Fly: African Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton
• Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving*
• In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Betty Bao Lord

7th Grade through 8th Grade:

• Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith
• The Glory Field by Walter Dean Myers
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• Dragonwings by Laurence Yep

9th Grade through 12th Grade:

• Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather*
• Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin edited by Louis P. Masur
• Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza
• Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie by Ole Edvart Rølvaag

The three titles with asterisks* after them are also available in Spanish.

These titles are on the bookshelf at the Seneca Falls Library, 47 Cayuga Street and are available for reading. The library will be planning programs and encouraging young readers to explore these works, and promoting the bookshelf in our community. Next summer the library will celebrate the bookshelf with an original production based on the books and featuring the Seneca Falls Community Band along with the children.