2024 NATIONAL MEDAL
for Museum and Library Service Finalist

Non-Fiction

Redwoods

Offers general information about redwood trees such as height, how the bark protect them from fires, average age, and the types of plant and animal life that live in them.

Down Along With That Devil's Bones : A Reckoning With Monuments, Memory, and the Legacy of White Supremacy

This timely, engaging book examines whiteness through controversial Confederate symbols and statues that have become a focal point in the national discussion about systemic racism and white supremacy. Producer of the podcast White Lies, O’Neill focuses on several statues and a building named after Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, who looms large in Confederate lore, being the only person to enlist as a private and work his way to general. But Forrest also made his money as a slave trader and was the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law

Tracing the line between wildlife and the law, the acclaimed science writer examines how humans interact with the natural world. “What is the proper course when wild animals break laws intended for people?” So asks Roach in a book that, in the author’s characteristic style, ranges widely, from wild animal attacks to the inherent dangers of certain plants to ways in which we have treated animals that most humans consider vermin.

Rise: My Story

The American alpine skier and former Olympian remembers the struggles and triumphs that marked her storied career. Vonn was just 2 1/2 when her father first put her on skis. She tried other sports, but she discovered that no other activity came close to giving her the “speed, the power, the adrenaline [rush]” she adored. A hometown encounter with Olympic ski champion Picabo Street inspired Vonn deeply enough that by age 9 she declared her intent to ski in the 2002 Olympics.

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

On Winston Churchill's first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next twelve months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally--and willing to fight to the end.