User:Qst/James Madison Book Award

The James Madison Book Award is a literary award, awarded to a book which best represents excellence in bringing an understanding and knowledge of American history to readers aged 5-14. The money used for the underwriting and the awarding process was donated by Lynne Cheney, who used proceeds from two of her best-selling books. The award is named as such after James Madison, fourth President of the United States who was known to have enjoyed books from his early childhood, and who changed with the knowledge he learnt from reading.

History
Lynne Cheney, wife of Dick Cheney, the current Vice President of the United States, announced on April 23, 2003, that she intended on setting up a charitable fund in order to create the James Madison Book Award. Cheney made a donation of $100,000 to form the the James Madison Book Award Fund, a separate fund of the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In order to be eligible for the award, books must be written for children in elementary or middle school, have a non-fiction subject related to American history, and be published within the last year. Anthologies, collections, text books, audio books are not eligible to be entered as competitors. The annual winner of the award is decided by a selection committee, drawn by members of Advisory Council, a council set up specifically for the award.