Literacy.gov - Pretty Good Resouce

Lifelong Literacy
('literacy.gov' - on the Library of Congress website)

"Books can open windows to new worlds and doors to adventure. Here is just a sampling of recommended reading that will spark imagination and transport you to new and exciting places...."

I'll admit to a bias: I think literacy is a good idea. Being able to read makes what has happened, and what has been imagined, available to a degree that a person isn't likely to get by talking with neighbors, watching television, and going to the movies now and again.

Not that there's anything wrong with neighbors, television, or the movies.

Literacy.gov seems to be aimed at least partly to younger readers, with titles like "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales" by Jon Scieszka; "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs" by Jon Scieszka (again); and "A Long Way from Chicago" by Richard Peck.

You won't find the books there: just their titles, author, and a short description. I think the idea is that you'll go out and buy the things, or borrow them from a library.

Then there's the Amazing Americans section. "Discover the inventors, politicians, performers, activists and other everyday people who made this country what it is today." One of them is Pocahontas: who was around 12 years old when she "helped negotiate the return of Powhatan prisoners held by the colonists." (If that doesn't quite sound like the title character of the Disney film of the same name: you're right. Disney Studios didn't strive for historical accuracy.)

The Lemming will climb down from the soapbox now.

Bottom line: a pretty good online resource.