Lunar New Year Love Story is the story of Valentina Tran, a high schooler whose family has been unlucky in love for generations. When Val meets Saint Valentine, he offers to protect her heart from ever being hurt again, but that also means she won't be able to feel again. Val has one year to find true love, or else her heart will be taken away for good.
This book tackles family secrets and falling in love through beautiful illustrations and heartfelt moments. Val starts off as estranged from her extended family and her Vietnamese heritage. Slowly, she becomes closer to her grandmother, and becomes more sure of herself as she learns to dance. In addition to seeing the characters grow throughout the story, I think one of my favorite parts about this is how color is used to indicate tone. The colors are bright and vibrant as Val watches the lion dance or falls in love, but when Saint Valentine appears or characters argue, the backgrounds shift to being darkly shaded and the color palette becomes muted. It's a clever way to signify the mood and pull readers further into the story.
This book tackles family secrets and falling in love through beautiful illustrations and heartfelt moments. Val starts off as estranged from her extended family and her Vietnamese heritage. Slowly, she becomes closer to her grandmother, and becomes more sure of herself as she learns to dance. In addition to seeing the characters grow throughout the story, I think one of my favorite parts about this is how color is used to indicate tone. The colors are bright and vibrant as Val watches the lion dance or falls in love, but when Saint Valentine appears or characters argue, the backgrounds shift to being darkly shaded and the color palette becomes muted. It's a clever way to signify the mood and pull readers further into the story.