Press Releases
| For Immediate Release June 15, 2007 |
Contact: Cristina Allegretti (202) 277-2034 |
2007 JAMES MADISON BOOK AWARD TO BE PRESENTED ON
CONSTITUTION DAY
$10,000 annual prize for best American history book for children
five to fourteen will be given on September 17, 2007
JACKSON HOLE, WY – Lynne Cheney announced today that the 2007 James Madison Book Award will be presented on Constitution Day this year. The annual award is given to the book that, in Mrs. Cheney’s words, “best represents excellence in bringing knowledge and understanding of American history to the next generation.” The fifth annual award, a cash prize of $10,000, will be publicized at a ceremony on September 17, 2007.
In 2001, Lynne Cheney announced plans for an annual celebration of Constitution Day to highlight the importance of learning about America’s Founding Fathers and documents, as well as the inspirational figures who have since helped our nation live up to the ideals contained within the Constitution. “I think it is vital to teach children about one of our nation’s most influential documents and the people who shaped it,” Mrs. Cheney said.
On Constitution Day 2007, the James Madison Book Award Selection Committee will name the winner as well as “Honor Books,” exceptional entries recognized with a silver James Madison Book Award seal. The 2006 James Madison Book Award went to author Tonya Bolden for Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl (Harry N. Abrams, 2005). It was presented by Mrs. Cheney at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City.
The award winner is chosen each year by a committee drawn from the James Madison Book Award Advisory Council. The Advisory Council, chaired by Mrs. Cheney, is composed of more than thirty members, including television producer Ken Burns, historians David McCullough and Michael Beschloss, Children’s Television Workshop founder Joan Ganz Cooney, commentator Peggy Noonan, and educator E.D. Hirsch.
To underwrite the annual award, Mrs. Cheney donated $100,000 to form the James Madison Book Award Fund, a separate fund of the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, a Wyoming 501(c)(3) public foundation. Her donation represents a portion of the profits from her own children’s books, America: A Patriotic Primer and A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women.
Lynne Cheney served as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1986 to 1993 and is currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. She is author or co-author of ten books, including America: A Patriotic Primer, A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women, When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots, and Our Fifty States: A Family Adventure Across America, four children’s books celebrating America’s history. She is married to Vice President Dick Cheney.