Fact Sheet
The James Madison Book Award, a $10,000 prize, recognizes excellence in bringing knowledge and understanding of American history to children ages five through fourteen. It is named after James Madison, fourth president of the United States, who loved books from the time he was a child and who changed history with the knowledge he gained from reading.
The James Madison Book Award is given yearly. Books eligible for the 2006 award, to be presented in July, are those published (which will, in most cases, mean copyrighted) in 2005. The deadline for recommending books for the 2006 award is May 8, 2006.
Books can be recommended for the award by publishers and members of the James Madison Book Award Advisory Council. The award winner is chosen by a selection committee drawn from the James Madison Book Award Advisory Council.
Books must be published in 2005 and written for children in elementary and middle school. Only non-fiction books will be considered. Anthologies, collections, textbooks, audio books and Internet books are not eligible.
James Madison Book Award Advisory Council
| Lynne Cheney, chair | Robert Goldwin | Christine Parker |
| Katharine Armstrong | Anne Gwaltney | Cammy Passarella |
| Walter Berns | Henry Higuera | Sandy Pedersen |
| Michael Beschloss | E.D. Hirsch | Robert Remini |
| Ken Burns | Phyllis Hunter | Janet Rogers |
| Laura Chadwick | Katherine Kersten | Maggie Scarlett |
| Celeste Colgan | Jan Larimer | Ann Simpson |
| Joan Ganz Cooney | Wilfred McClay | Marguerite Sullivan |
| Peggy Duckett | David McCullough | Toni Thomson |
| Frederick Douglass IV | Louisa Moats | Mary Kay Turner |
| Elizabeth Fradkin | Anne Neal | Jay Winik |
| Peter Gibbon | Peggy Noonan | |
| Robin Preiss Glasser | Michael Pack |
“What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable than that of liberty and learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?”
James Madison, 1822
Updated September 2005