Posted by ***This Blog Post is Long Overdue***
The July 2025 Membership Meeting of Bay Area Young Adult Librarians was originally supposed to focus on Collection Development, Readers’ Advisory & DEI. But, before the final planning of this meeting took place, several developments happened at the Federal and national level that urged the BAYA Executive Committee to send out a poll to membership asking if they wanted to change the topic for the July Meeting.
The polling results showed a strong interest in responding membership to change the focus of the July meeting to Current Events Open Forum Discussion: YALSA’s Decision to Reunify ALSC and Federal & State Decisions Effecting School and Public Library Collections. The discussion and information sharing covered: the American Library Association and YALSA’s reunification with ALSC, the IMLS Executive Order, and Maymound vs. Taylor decision. Summaries of each item can be found on the meeting slides.
2025 – July 22 – Presentation Slides.pdf
Due to the semi-sensitive nature of the discussion and opinions being shared by membership, the presentation (or discussion) portion of the July Membership Meeting was not recorded other than for brief notes taken by the Secretary. Those notes can be found on our website in the Meeting Minute Archives.
At this July meeting we also discussed changes to BAYA regarding: Current Structure & Leadership issues, ideas for a new leadership structure, Non-Profit Status & Financials, Membership Structure & Fees, and Meeting Structure & Schedule. We utilized Menti to aggregate information for those participating in the discussion. You can find the Menti results also in the Meeting minute Archives.
Books & Programs Share-Out
- Books:
- American Spirits: The Famous Fox Sisters and the Mysterious Fad that Haunted a Nation by Barb Rosenstock – Highly recommended for anyone looking for American History and the occult. The audiobook was well done and the reflections by the author in the final chapter are very interesting and insightful.
- The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis – A queer retelling of Eros recommended for Older Teens. The recommender had an author Visit with De Robertis and said college students as well as high schools students came, but the event had been during the No Kings Day Protest so attendance may have been lower than usual.
- Darkly by Marisha Pessl – An “Inheritance”-style book. A cult game maker who died years ago is the focus of teens being recruited to discover the mysteries of games and her death.
- Salvación by Sandra Proudman – A magical realism retelling of Zorro.
- Celestial Banquet by Roselle Lim – A noodle chef enters a cooking competition for the gods. Described by the publisher as “Iron Chef meets The Hunger Games.”
- Eliza, from Scratch by Sophia Lee – A cute YA rom-com but also focuses on the teen-parent relationship as immigrants, plus the pressure of academics and learning about your family’s culture.
- Donut Summer by Anita Kelly – A super cute, queer YA Romance. Two teens fall in love at their donut shop. When the shop might close, the two teens team up to save the shop from a corporate take over.
- The Apothecary Diaries Series by Nekokurage & Natsu Hyuuga – Manga, From the publisher: “After breaking a “curse” on the imperial heirs, a palace servant with training in herbal medicine is promoted up the ranks to food taster…and right into the thick of palace intrigue in this lushly illustrated historical mystery series!”
- Medusa by Jessie Burton – A really enjoyable read that retells the story of the titular character from her perspective as she struggles with the curse that was inflicted upon her and how she grapples with the isolation and dark emotions that come with it. The way that it weaves Greek mythology into the struggles of a young woman in an inherently misogynistic society is extremely harrowing. It’s such a stressful read, but the ending is so cathartic.
- Run Away with me by Brian Selznick – A really sweet romance so far. Almost done with it! Has great illustrations. The book has had lots of thoughts from several librarians.
- Programming:
- Active Teen D&D Club – They meet twice a month with an average of 30-35 teens per meeting. Due to excitement and noise, the meetings are capped.
- Example Programs: Contra Costa County Library Past Program & Alameda Free Library Past Program
- Summer Scares in August has Four Programs planned, two for adults and two for teens, which were planned in collaboration with the Bay Area Horror Writers Association:
- Includes Book Talks, Horror Board Game event, and Social Media & Book Recommendations
- Test running a Book Club with the Teen Advisory group. Books will be purchased and discussed.
- Book Bedazzling – An social media craze: Bedazzle covers of books. The program hadn’t taken place yet, but all was needed was rhinestones and glue. Teens could bring their own book that is special to them or they could take a free book home if they didn’t bring one.
- Thimble Insurance – Programming Insurance starting at about $16 for a presentation from an author.
- Queer Readers’ Cafe – Spooky Season Edition – Queer joy shall abound at the Queer Readers’ Book Café! Let’s kick off spooky season with a selection of queer horror, dark academia, and paranormal reads and recommendations! The Queer Readers’ Cafe is sort of like a silent book club, but chatter is OK. Unlike a typical book club, participants can read whatever they want!
- Carlos Nieto Drawing Workshop – it was great! Contact Sandi if you need more information
- Active Teen D&D Club – They meet twice a month with an average of 30-35 teens per meeting. Due to excitement and noise, the meetings are capped.
Next Meeting will be Tuesday, September 23rd, from 10-12PM on Supporting Your Teens Post High School: College, Career & Beyond
Bay Area Young Adult Librarians 