In 2010, Parks and Recreation, opens a new window aired "Galentine's Day" (season 2 episode 16). Leslie Knope gets all her female friends together on February 13th to celebrate each other and their friendships. The concept took off, and 15 years later, Galentine's Day is celebrated by women and girls around the world. These YA novels are a testament to the importance and strength of female friendships.
In Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee, Josie and Delia are best friends. On top of that, they host a public access TV show called "Midnite Matinee" where they dress as their vampire alter-egos Rayne and Delilah and play cheesy low-budget horror films. As the end of senior year approaches, Josie needs to decide if she should leave town to pursue her dreams of working in TV or stay to keep doing Midnite Matinee. Meanwhile, Delia is trying to find her dad who's been absent for the past 10 years. The girls' friendship is tested in the face of an uncertain and scary future.
Himawari House is a graphic novel that shows how friendship can transcend background and language. Nao books a year-long stay at the Himawari sharehouse in Tokyo to connect to her Japanese roots. She meets fellow boarders, Tina and Hyejung, and the three spend almost all their time together. They even attend the same Japanese language class. As they all navigate the difficulty of being fish out of water in their new city, their newfound friendship is put to the test.
In a mix of prose, text messages, and emails, The Queens of New York tells the story of three best friends, Jia, Ariel, and Everett. The three girls are spending their first ever summer apart after nearly being inseparable most of their lives. Jia goes to theatre camp in Ohio where she chases her dreams of eventually performing on Broadway, Ariel goes to San Francisco for a STEM camp while she grieves her sister who passed away the year before, and Everett stays in Queens where she helps run her family's restaurant in Chinatown. Despite their distance, the girls remain connected and their friendship stays strong as ever.
Out of four best friends, one is destined to become President of the United States, but you, the reader, must figure out which one it is. In Most Likely, readers follow Ava, CJ, Jordan, and Martha through their senior year as they come to terms with leaving high school and each other. Ava's an artist, struggling to find her way in life. CJ has the perfect life plan figured out but needs to improve her SAT scores to achieve it. Jordan is an aspiring journalist ready to leave small-town Ohio behind. Lastly, Martha has the scores for a top school but not the funding. Can you figure out which of these four will one day be president before the end of the book?
In the graphic novel Squad, Becca transfers to a new school in Ohio and is surprised to be immediately taken in by the most popular girls in school: Marley, Arianna, and Mandy. She soon learns their secret: they are werewolves and they hunt boys who take advantage of innocent girls. Becca allows them to turn her into a werewolf and joins their pack. Soon, their pack begins to face challenges, and the moral high ground they feel they've had gets a bit muddy. Will the pack survive? Or will they buckle under the pressure, especially when Becca starts to fall for one of her packmates?
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