Lunar New 12 months Love Story is a terrific instance of a graphic novel for mature teenagers: inventive, layered, and storied.

Lunar New 12 months Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham. First Second, 2024. 352 pages.

  • Studying Degree: Teenagers, ages 15-18
  • Really useful for: Ages 15 and up

Lunar New 12 months Love Story: The E-book

Valentina Tran’s favourite vacation is Valentine’s Day. Since she was little, she’s celebrated the day by making handmade Valentine’s Day playing cards for everybody, however particularly for her dad. She makes one for him that’s from her long-passed mother. She will be able to inform he nonetheless misses her. Till at some point, when she finds out the reality: her mom didn’t die! She left them!

Her grandmother tells her that their household is simply unfortunate in love. Val believes it. In spite of everything, her greatest pal appears to don’t have any bother falling in love… repeatedly and once more. She’s with one new boyfriend after one other. Val finally ends up making a cope with St. Valentine, a determine that’s appeared to her for years, that if she will be able to make it a yr with out falling in love (proving her unlucky-in-love heritage), then she’s going to give her coronary heart to him.

In the future, Val is passing by a Chinese language lion dance studio. One factor results in one other, and shortly Val is a part of the lion dance troupe, all set to carry out for a giant Lunar New 12 months celebration. Even higher? She’s formally an merchandise with one of many lead dancers. However is that this man the true factor? Is she actually in love?

Lunar New 12 months Love Story: The Themes

Like most rom-coms, readers will decide up on Val’s real love earlier than she’s going to. However that’s solely a tiny a part of this layered, multigenerational story. The actual story is one in every of wholesome and restored relationships: father to daughter, grandmother to grandmother, daughter to mom, pal to pal, and, sure, girlfriend to boyfriend.

Though cultural allusions to ancestor worship are frequent, each grandmothers are avid church goers and shortly, Valentina joins them. The church (Catholic) is a supply of each fact and luxury all through. And on the finish, it’s within the church that Valentina makes her hardest resolution and chooses actual love as an alternative of giving her coronary heart away in despair. St. Valentine’s presence all through the story (principally visible) signifies this progress: as his character ebbs and flows, Valentina’s does the reverse. As her love for her household, pals, and boyfriend grows richer, extra nuanced and mature, St. Valentine’s selfishness renders him an increasing number of hideous.

This can be a textbook excellent graphic novel: attractive, layered artwork that fills within the sparse textual content in excellent concord. The story is equally attractive and layered, brimming with emotion simply sufficient to fill a reader’s cup however not overflow into sentimentality. Thematic explorations of affection throughout all relationships are so effectively carried out.

Lunar New 12 months Love Story: It’s Value Studying

In immediately’s cultural local weather, it’s laborious to discover a guide protecting romance and relationships with no nod to similar intercourse relationships. Lunar New 12 months Love Story is not any completely different, however the lesbian couple serves as an excellent plot level. The feminine proprietor of the lion dance studio turns into pals with Val’s single father. Val thinks: wonderful! Dad can fall in love once more! Seems, that proprietor has a spouse. After the one line indicating that, nothing extra is claimed till the very finish, when the 2 girls are pictured collectively. Nonetheless, the truth that the lady is in a lesbian relationship neatly removes her because the dad’s love curiosity. His relational therapeutic entails being restored to proper relationship along with his daughter, his mom, and his former mother-in-law. I admire that his therapeutic didn’t require a brand new love curiosity. Romantic relationships don’t repair us; they’re beautiful items from the Lord despite our mess.

All in all, I extremely advocate this graphic novel even given the inclusion of the identical intercourse couple and its ancestor worship. You’ll get pleasure from discussing the character of real love (each romantic and platonic), the deserves of true friendship and what that appears like, how we are able to heal from relational trauma, how we are able to have a good time the similarities and variations between cultures, and a lot extra. Learn this one alongside your teenagers! And, with out making it a possibility to ship a sermon, do level out that we’re solely proper with each other once we are proper with the Lord. And that’s solely by means of Jesus!

Concerns:

  • Worldview: Ancestor worship (a part of the cultural expressions; see above); a lesbian couple (not overemphasized; see above).
  • Sexuality: A couple of kisses (in boy-girl relationship relationships). One scene depicts the silhouette of two dancers beneath their lion costumes; it’s clear that one is a lady and one isn’t, however it’s actually only a silhouette. One other scene reveals two lions “kissing” (which is not possible in actuality, given the costumes), and a child says, “I feel I noticed tongue” (once more, not possible).
  • Language: one “Thank God” and one “Oh My God.”

Backside Line: Lunar New 12 months Love Story is a terrific instance of a graphic novel for mature teenagers: inventive, layered, and storied. Search for it at your library!

We’re contributors within the Amazon LLC associates program; purchases you make by means of affiliate hyperlinks just like the one beneath might earn us a fee. Learn extra right here.

Purchase Lunar New 12 months Love Story from Amazon.