Teen Literature Day. Not exactly a national holiday, but an observance, nonetheless.
Teen Literature Day is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday of National Library Week. This observance was first introduced by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) division of the American Library Association (ALA) in 2007. This year, National Library Week is April 19-25, 2026. This makes this year’s Teen Literature Day on April 23, 2026.
The purpose of this observance is to promote reading at the young adult level and highlight young adult literature. S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders (which she wrote as a teen) helped create young adult literature as we know it today, with its emotional emphasis, violence, focus on working-class teens, and social conflicts. It was when Stephanie Meyer published Twilight that we saw a huge boom in adults and teens reading young adult literature.
Here at the Quincy Public Library, we are celebrating Teen Literature Day by displaying young adult books throughout April that have not circulated nearly as much as other popular books to give them recognition. We want to give these books recognition because they deserve attention too, just like mainstream books.
Think about this: How We Ricochet by Faith Gardner vs The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The first book has circulated 2 times while all three of our copies of the second book have circulated a total of 147 times.
Some of the young adult books on our display will include before takeoff by Adi Alsaid, One True Loves by Elise Bryant, and Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson. If any of these books sound interesting to you, come check them out!
Happy reading this April!
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