- Graphic Novels
- Ages 13–18
- Romance
Lunar New Year Love Story
A beautifully illustrated YA rom-com with cultural richness, family history, lion dancing, and a real emotional spine. It is romantic and accessible, but more teen than middle-grade in its concerns.
- Best for13–18
- FormatGraphic
- Length352 pp
- Read aloud~2 hr45 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
- Comedic
Tone
- Heartwarming
- Bittersweet
- Funny
- Thought provoking
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Valentina used to believe in love, especially the kind of big, fated love that seems written into stories. But after learning painful truths about her family, she starts to wonder whether love is more curse than promise. Then a Lunar New Year encounter with lion dancers pulls her into a world of performance, tradition, friendship, and possible romance. Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham combine a teen love story with questions about family disappointment, cultural inheritance, and how much power old stories should have over the future. Warm, funny, and emotionally layered, this graphic novel offers swoony romance without losing sight of the complicated ways young people inherit both hope and hurt.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 13–18
- Read aloud · 12–17
- Independent · 13–18
Prose load
Moderate
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Workable
Works well for
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Preview before sharing if a child is sensitive to: parental separation, mental health.
Bedtime suitability
3 / 5 · Workable
Sensitive-child
4 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Ya graphic romance
- Lunar new year
- Cultural representation
- Beautiful art
- Heartstopper adjacent
Avoid if
- Younger middle grade
- Avoids romance
- Sensitive to family breakdown
Particularly good for children who are…
- Religious or cultural celebration
- Parents separating or divorcing
- Anxiety and worry
- Low self esteem
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A warm YA graphic-novel romance steeped in Lunar New Year traditions — a strong read for older teens about love, family and cultural identity.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific weight is Val's love-curse — convinced after learning family secrets that love is dangerous, then meeting a kind boy in a lion-dance team and having to decide whether to keep believing the old stories. The YA graphic novel where romance and family inheritance pull in opposite directions.
- Friendship and belonging
- Being understood finally
- Cosy safety
- Proving yourself
Why parents love it
The Gene Luen Yang/LeUyen Pham YA — Lunar New Year setting, lion dancing, first love tangled with family disappointment. More teen than middle-grade; cultural richness is genuine, not decorative. Strong YA-rom-com for a fourteen-plus reader.
- Beautiful illustrations
- Conversation starter
- Cultural representation
- Great writing
About the creators
About the creators.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
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