Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me by Mariko Tamaki, Rosemary Valero-O'Connell (Illustrator)

“Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley's dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There's just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend.” (Goodreads.com)

Let me start with two things, I hate Laura Dean, and Frederica needs to grow a backbone. Tamaki did a great job at creating characters that depict poor relationship habits. The main character keeps choosing a poisonous relationship over her friends time and time again. As an outside observer it’s easy to see what’s wrong, and easy to get frustrated when characters make the same mistakes over and over again. I think this graphic novel will be a good example for teen readers to see what it’s like to be blinded by “love” and then hopefully learn what some of those warning signs look like. If the characters annoy you, like they did me, at least you get to enjoy Rosemary Valero-O'Connell’s beautiful illustrations. I recommend this book if you like LGBTQ stories, teen relationship development, coming of age stories.

Meghan McCabeChildren & Youth Services Librarian

Available at the Langley Adams Library