what is love?

Lola and Grace are best friends, surviving middle school together. But there is one thing in particular that still confuses them, and that is love. What is the big deal with love? Grace likes to talk about going out with lots of boys, but Lola stays quiet. Grace knows that can mean only one thing—Lola has a crush on someone from school.

The girls decide to do some research on love, trying to figure out what makes a relationship work for more than 10 days. They start with Charlie, who is the girl with all the tea. She knows who is going out, who has a crush on someone, and who just broke up. Grace and Lola find out that the newest hot couple is Lou and Morgan, so they go in search of them to find out what brought them together. Grace knows all the hot spots where couples disappear for some alone time, thanks to her older brother,

They are able to locate the couple and ask them what brought them together, but the answers they get causes an argument between the couple almost immediately, so Grace and Lola didn’t learn much. And before they could do much else, the boys in the class change everything by ranking all the girls in the class by who is hot and who is not. The top of the list is Felicity and Adele. Felicity doesn’t go out with any of them, and Adele has a reputation for going out with too man of them. But when Lola and Grace track them down, they find out that nothing is really as it seems with love.

But these questions they are asking about love leads them to think about their choices, take some chances, reach out to others. But because love is love, and it’s messy and complicated and unpredictable, they feel joy but they also feel heartbreak. As they grieve separately for love they lost, they find strength in new friends and in themselves. But will they be able to repair the distance in their friendship through the heartbreak of loss?

The Love Report is a sweet story of friendship told in a graphic novel format. Created by a team of French writers and illustrated by an Italian artist, this colorful story shows that there are certain themes of growing up that are experienced everywhere. Friends and family, the hope of new beginnings and the heartache of endings, love and loss—we can all learn from each other, no matter what stage of life we find ourselves in.

I thought The Love Report was a really beautiful story with strong illustrations that really drew me in (no pun intended). Grace and Lola were strong characters from the start, and they made smart choices (mostly) that showed an emotional intelligence that I certainly never ad at that age. I do think this would be a book more suited for mature middle school readers, as some of the dating themes are not suitable for the youngest readers. But I thought the questions of dating were told with honesty and finesse. I think middle schoolers will appreciate this story and hopefully learn to make smart choices themselves and not just go along with what others say.

Egalleys for The Love Report were provided by Hippo Park, with many thanks.