2024 NATIONAL MEDAL
for Museum and Library Service Finalist

Fiction

French Braid

The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand.

There There

Among them is Jacquie Red Feather, newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind. Dene Oxendene, pulling his life together after his uncle’s death and working at the powwow to honor his memory. Fourteen-year-old Orvil, coming to perform traditional dance for the very first time. They converge and collide on one fateful day at the Big Oakland Powwow and together this chorus of voices tells of the plight of the urban Native American—grappling with a complex and painful history, with an inheritance of beauty and spirituality, with communion and sacrifice and heroism

Here Lies A Vengeful Bitch

Murdered bad girl Annie Lane is back from the grave and hellbent on revenge . . . she just has to figure out who killed her.

This fast-paced thriller by a talented debut delivers a horror-infused hunt for justice that's at once furiously feminist, darkly funny, and utterly satisfying.

Between her careless mom, her cheating ex-boyfriend, and her rotten reputation around town, Annie Lane is used to being left behind. But she’s never been left for dead before—until she wakes up to find her body’s been dumped on a mountain rumored to raise the dead.

Dog Squad

"Fred, a scrappy and lovable dog, gets cast as a stand-in for the lead role in Dog Squad, a show about crime-fighting dogs, and he soon finds out the action doesn't always stop on screen."--Provided by publisher.

Smartest Kid in the Universe series

The Smartest Kid in the Universe by Chris Grabenstein is an action-adventure book about a middle schooler named Jake McQuade who accidentally eats a jar of jelly beans that contain ingestible knowledge (IK). After eating the jelly beans, Jake becomes the smartest kid in the universe and is able to do things like solve complex math problems, quote historical facts, and explain scientific theories. However, the pills haven't been tested yet, and when people find out about Jake's new genius, they want him.

NERDS series

N.E.R.D.S. is a children's pentalogy written by Michael Buckley and illustrated by Ethen Beavers. The series tells the story of a fictional spy agency and its agents—children who have their "nerdy" characteristics upgraded into a tool that they can use to fight crime.

Camp Average series

Camp Average is a camp where boys get to do fun activities like rocketry, water skiing, swimming for fun, and many other fun activities. That is how Camp Average works until they get a new director and he wants to only win win win. The boys of cabin 10 have a plan to get their old camp back, but will it work?