In a new graphic novel, romance flourishes during the Lunar New Year

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lunar New Year Love Story, the new graphic novel written by Gene Luen Yang and illustrated by Leuyen Pham, follows a teenage girl who believes she's been stuck with a generational curse for heartbreak. But during the festivity's traditional lion dance, a chance encounter gives her hope she can rewrite her fate — if she's willing to take a chance. In today's episode, Yang and Pham speak with Here & Now's Robin Young about writing romance for young readers, and what they say are the three essential elements to a good kiss.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Teaching young teens today about love,
0:08.2	about relationships, about connecting with someone seems really hard to say the least. Not that it was
0:15.6	easy before, but now, you know, it's hard to take the emotional risk in connecting with someone when it's,
0:22.7	you know, so much easier to just bury yourself in your phone. But the book we've got on the pod today
0:27.3	is hoping to help. It's a graphic novel titled Lunar New Year love story. It's about a Vietnamese
0:32.7	American teenager looking for love. And it's by a couple veterans of the kids book game, Gene Loon
0:38.9	Yang and Le Wyn Fem. They talk to here now as Robin Young just after the start of the Lunar New
0:44.4	Year. And you can hear in how they talk about the book, how both joyfully and seriously, they
0:51.6	take the job of teaching young people how to love, which apparently does mean teaching them how to smooch.
0:59.9	That's ahead.
1:01.6	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:06.4	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:12.9	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant
1:17.9	events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get
1:23.7	your podcasts. The Lunar New Year, this year of the year of the dragon, began last weekend.
1:30.1	Both come together in this year's calendar, but also in a new graphic YA novel by two
1:35.1	superstar kids' book creators.
1:37.6	Jean Lewin-Yang is the writer behind American-born Chinese, the best-selling graphic novel
1:42.5	turned TV series.
1:44.4	Le Wyn Pham is the Caldigot-winning illustrator of over 100 children's books, including
1:48.9	Bear Came Along in the Princess Black series.
1:52.3	Together they create sparks, fireworks, in Lunar New Year love story.
	...

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