This touching YA graphic novel (a Kids' Indie Next List pick) follows an endearing Vietnamese American teen who desperately seeks true love despite her family's history of tragic romances.
High school junior Valentina Trãn once adored Valentine's Day--so much so that she imagined a cherubic cupid "Saint V" was her guide. When Val learns that her mother didn't die years ago, as her father claimed, but left him, Val disavows the holiday all together. Saint V transforms into the specter of the man he really was, and the girl decides to give him her heart in a year if she fails to find true love. Val's journey to find love parallels a careful nurturing of frayed familial ties with her father and her previously estranged grandma.
Lunar New Year Love Story is a buoying tale about being open to the pain of love from Eisner- and Printz Award-winner Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese). Caldecott Honoree LeUyen Pham (Outside, Inside) brings remarkable depth to Yang's heartfelt story through her digital illustrations. Charming and sweet. --Samantha Zaboski, freelance editor and reviewer