Sunny View Elementary School Library is one of 4,000 libraries across the country selected by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA) to receive free hardcover editions of 17 classic books as part of the &dquo;We the People Bookshelf&dquo; grant program.

The theme of this year&squo;s Bookshelf is &dquo;Picturing America.&dquo;&bsp; The We the People Bookshelf on &dquo;Picturing America&dquo; contains the following books:

&ull; Kindergarten to Grade 3: &dquo;Walt Whitman: Words for America&dquo; by Barbara Kerley; &dquo;Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez&dquo; by Kathleen Krull; &dquo;Cosechando esperenza: La historia de C´sar Chávaz&dquo; by Kathleen Krull (translated by Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy); &uot;The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere&uot; by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; &dquo;Sweet Music in Harlem&dquo; by Debbie Taylor

&ull; Grades 4 to 6: &dquo;The Birchbark House&dquo; by Louise Erdrich; &dquo;American Tall Tales&dquo; by Mary Pope Osborne; &dquo;On the Wings of Heroes&dquo; by Richard Peck; &dquo;Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule&dquo; by Harriette Gillem Robinet; &dquo;The Captain&squo;s Dog: My Journey with the Lewis and Clark Tribe&dquo; by Roland Smith

&ull; Grades 7 to 8: &dquo;The Life and Death of Crazy Horse&dquo; by Russell Freedman; &dquo;The Legend of Sleepy Hollow&dquo; by Washington Irving; &dquo;La leyanda de Sleepy Hollow&dquo; by Washington Irving (translated by Manual Broncano); &dquo;Across America on an Emigrant Train&dquo; by Jim Murphy; &dquo;The Adventures of Tom Sawyer&dquo; by Mark Twain

&ull; Grades 9 to 12: &dquo;Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation&dquo; by Joseph J. Ellis; &dquo;Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange&dquo; by Elizabeth Partridge; &dquo;Travels with Charley in Search of America&dquo; by John Steinbeck; &dquo;Viajes Con Charley ‐ En Busca de Am´rica&dquo; by John Steinbeck (translated by Jos´ Manuel Alvarez Fl´rez); &dquo;Democracy in America&dquo; by Alexis de Tocqueville

&ull; Bonus: &dquo;Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out&dquo; by The National Children&squo;s Book and Literary Alliance; &dquo;1776: The Illustrated Edition&dquo; by David McCullough

The award is part of the NEH&squo;s We the People initiative, which supports projects that strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. Selected public and school libraries in all 50 states each will receive a set of the 22 books (including Spanish translations of three of the titles and two bonus titles), posters, bookmarks, bookplates from the NEH and the ALA, and access to online planning and promotional materials.&bsp; Since 2003, NEH has awarded 13,000 We the People Bookshelf grants to school and public libraries across the country.

Sunny View School Library currently has the books displayed on a special shelf, and will encourage their use by offering incentives for students who read those specific books.&bsp; Students will also write book reviews that will be placed around the library as &dquo;mini-posters&dquo; to encourage others to read the books.&bsp; The school library happily welcomes these additions to its Social Studies collection.

For more information about the We the People Bookshelf project, please visit http://publicprograms.ala.org/bookshelf.