Lunar New Year Love Story, New OGN From Gene Luen Yang & LeUyen Pham

Lunar New Year Love Story, is a new YA graphic novel by Printz Medal winner Gene Luen Yang and Caldecott Honoree LeUyen Pham to be published in the winter of 2024 by Mark Siegel and Connie Hsu at First Second.

Val, a teen turned cynical after learning about a family secret, rejects all things romantic even though she’s named in honor of Valentine’s Day. But when sparks fly at a Lunar New Year lion dance, her fortunes and future begin to change. Interwoven with Tết, Seol-Nal, and Xin Nian traditions, this is a love story about families, faith, and finding hope.

LeUyen Pham posted to Instagram “BEEN WAITING FOREVER TO ANNOUNCE THIS!!! The absolutely amazing, coolest-dude-ever “Gene-ius” Yang and I are doing a graphic novel together! “Lunar New Year”, coming out winter 2024. I won’t say much about it, except it’s a teen romance and so much fun to work on… and here’s a sample page! Not sure it’s making it into the book yet, but just had to post this one… let us know what you think!!”

The cartoonist Gene Luen Yang is a frequent lecturer on the subjects of graphic novels and comics, named the U.S. Library of Congress named him Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and is in receipt of the MacArthur Fellowship. He is the creator of American Born Chinese, Boxers, Saints, The Eternal Smile, Prime Baby and Level Up, as well as writer of Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Shadow Hero, Superman, Secret Coders, New Super-Man, The Terrifics, Shang-Chi and Batman/Superman.

LeUyen Pham is the co-creator of the Real Friends, Best Friends and Friends Forever series of graphic novels that had million figure print runs, as well as the illustrator of the Princess in Black children’s book series an  Itty Bitty Kittycorn. In 2020, she was awarded a Caldecott Honor for her illustrations in the book Bear Came Along.

Gene Luen Yang’s agent Judy Hansen at Hansen Literary and LeUyen Pham’s agent Holly McGhee at Pippin Properties represented the creators.