YA Friday: Two Years Later…

They say it's your birthday. It's my birthday, too!

It's been two years since the first YA Friday post. Since then there have been over 100 uninterrupted weeks of YA recommendations, 24 monthly wrap-ups, over 1,000 highlighted books, and over 4,000 page views!

YA Friday has continued to flourish with other staff members collaborating on YA Friday posts and sharing some of their favorite books as well as creating themed feature posts to look forward to each month.

In honor of YA Friday's second birthday, I decided to pick some of my favorite blog posts from this past year and talk a little bit about why I liked each one.

Silhouettes of four girls in front of a sunset

YA Friday: Little Women as Modern Teens

I loved the book and movie Little Women growing up and with the new movie released, I thought Leizel was so clever in using this way to explore the March sisters' personalities and reintroduce the story to a new generation.

Taylor Swift with a glitter heart around her eye on a rainbow cloud background

YA Friday: Lover

I thoroughly enjoyed pairing books to the songs in Taylor Swift's most recent album. I love exploring the lyrics of each song and discovering new YA stories that embody the theme of love and growth.

YA book covers with crowns and white text that reads "San José Public Library's Mock Printz "Prince" Awards.

YA Friday: The Mock Printz "Prince" Awards 2020

Discussing YA books with others is one of my favorite things to do as a librarian, and in this mock committee we get to learn such awesome skills while having fun with our coworkers.

Sherlock Holmes looking through a magnifying glass

YA Friday: Moriarty? More like Mori-Party!

I love Sherlock Holmes stories and this this list of young adult retellings and mysteries was one of my favorite roundups to compile this past year.

Books with flowers on top and text in front that says, "Tropes Spring Eternal"

YA Friday: Tropes Spring Eternal - The Fake Relationship

In the first monthly feature where I examine various tropes and I got to focus on one of my favorites: The Fake Relationship. It's always a fun plot to read (and watch) because it is built on tension and "enemistry" (the chemistry between enemies) and you just know that the main characters are going to declare their true feelings for one another in some big way, like at a school dance or on the sports field in front of the entire school and end up happily ever after together!

Pink young adult novels stacked together with a ballet slipper and pink flowers.

YA Friday: On Fridays, We Read Pink!

Sometimes you have to judge a book by it's cover! And that's what we did in this blog post where we highlighted some of the prettiest pink and aesthetically pleasing YA book covers published recently.