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The "Pursuit of Happiness " Bookshelf

In addition to the fifteen books in English selected for the Bookshelf, NEH added four of these works in Spanish translation. The books available in Spanish are marked below with an asterisk (*).

As bonus component of this year’s Bookshelf is a CD with performances of traditional music featured in the Little House series of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The publishing company Scholastic, Inc. graciously  donated 2,000 copies of two of the “Pursuit of Happiness” titles.  Those titles are marked below with two asterisks (**). The books included in the "Pursuit of Happiness" Bookshelf are:

Kindergarten to Grade 3

  • Aesop’s Fables by Aesop
  • Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton *
  • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

Grades 4 to 6

  • Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt *
  • The Great Migration: An American Story by Jacob Lawrence
  •  These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung by Laurence Yep **

Grades 7 to 8

  • Carry on, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
  • Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan * **

Grades 9 to 12

  • Kindred by Octavio Butler
  • O Pioneers! by Willa Cather *
  • The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Common Sense by Thomas Paine
  • Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Applications and awards

Applications are no longer being accepted.  The application period was September 19, 2006, through January 31, 2007.

Applicants will be notified by March 31, 2007, whether or not they will be awarded a Bookshelf.

Programs on the theme “Pursuit of Happiness” are expected to take place in libraries between May 1, 2007, and April 30, 2008.

Find out more about the We the People Bookshelf.


Ray Bradbury
Illustration by Joe Cepeda (c)2002, published by Scholastic Press



Published 1990 by
Chronicle Books LLC



Drawing by Drew Martin (c)2005

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