LUNAR NEW YEAR LOVE STORY by Gene Luen Yang

There have been so many amazing graphic novels and memoirs that have come out in the last few years, but I was particularly excited for Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang, the author of Dragon Hoops and American Born Chinese.

Valentina is named for Valentine’s Day, and it’s no surprise that it’s her favorite holiday of the year…until it’s not. Family secrets finally come to light during her junior year of high school, and she has to decide if she wants to open her heart to the possibility of love, or keep it closed forever.

This book was so good, both the illustrations by LeUyen Pham and the text of the story itself. It wasn’t so much a romantic love story, but a story of a girl that has her eyes opened to both her family history and her culture as well. I loved all the scenes about Lunar New Year, so fun and colorful, and all the Dragon dancing parts too.

I highly recommend this book for middle schoolers AND high schoolers, anyone that even has a remote interest in graphic novels will like this book.

ANATOMY: A LOVE STORY by Dana Schwartz

I love a good historical fiction book, and so I was super excited about reading Anatomy: a love story by Dana Schwartz for my book club. I’ve also read And We’re Off by her, and really enjoyed it. Mystery, light fantasy, a teensy bit of romance, and historical fiction? Sign me up!

In 1817, Hazel is a member of Society, but doesn’t care much for things that a lot of ladies her age care for. She is super into science, specifically anatomy, and dreams of being a surgeon one day. Her mother lets her do a lot of what she wants, because she’s hyper focused on Hazel’s little brother Percy, but lets her know that one day she better get married to her cousin Bernard. Hazel dresses up in her dead brother’s clothes in order to attend school at the Anatomists’ Society, but when she’s found out she has to learn on her own. She gets subjects from a local body snatcher, Jack, but when weird things seem to be missing from the bodies that they find, she needs to uncover what has been happening to the poor of Edinburgh.

I really enjoyed this book, and want to read the second book in the duology. Dana Schwartz is an excellent writer. This book has a few disturbing/gory bits in it, so I would recommend it for high school and above.