Interesting:
Lynne Cheney Reveals Reading List
Tuesday, June 03, 2003
URL:http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,88479,00.html
WASHINGTON — Poet Langston Hughes (search), novelist Stephen Crane (search) and humorist and social commentator Mark Twain (search) grace the recommended reading proposed Tuesday to help American youngsters learn more about their history and culture.
The recommended books feature themes of courage, with various titles proposed for readers from kindergarten through 12th grade.
It's part of a $100 million program sought by President Bush to teach youngsters more about their country.
The list includes both fiction and nonfiction, such as Frederick Douglass' own account of his rise from slavery, Crane's Red Badge of Courage and Twain's Huckleberry Finn.
The shelf of 15 books will be offered to 500 libraries around the United States. The list was presented to 30 eight-and-nine-year-olds from Marie F. Reed School in Washington, at the residence of Vice President Richard Cheney.
"Reading is power," Lynne Cheney (search) told the youngsters. A former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, she made the presentation with Bruce Cole, who now holds the job and is in charge of the project.
"It's a place where people worry if kids are learning enough about history," she explained about the agency.
She read a poem by Langston Hughes that begins "Hold fast to dreams" and asked the youngsters about their own dreams. One boy said he wanted to be an archaeologist.
"That's a great dream to have," she said, "and you can find out how things were a long time ago."
Another said he wanted to be president.
"I think you could be president," she commented. "But I also think that even if you just have a high goal like that and maybe only get to be vice president, it's OK."
Cole, an art historian, also emphasized the importance of books.
"Books are really important because they can take you to all sorts of places," he said. "They take you into the past, say 200 years ago, and they can take you into the future. And you can meet through books all sorts of interesting people, animals and other neat things. If you have a book you have terrific companionship. You're never alone when you have a book."
This year's list includes:
_Kindergarten through grade 3: The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz, Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig.
_Grades 4-6: The Matchlock Gun by Walter D. Edmonds, The Dream Keeper and Other Poems by Langston Hughes, My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George and Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
_Grades 7-8: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass and The Hobbitt by J.R.R. Tolkein.
_The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. |
