My Love Story!!, Volume 1

September 1, 2014

Gr 7 Up-Takeo is big and manly in a macho kind of way. His best friend, Sunakawa, is handsome in a pretty/pointy-haired way, which means that girls always find him attractive. One day Takeo rescues a girl named Yamato from a groper on the train, and she starts falling in love with him. Unfortunately for Takeo, he is too dense to realize this and spends most of the story convinced that Yamato is really in love with Sunakawa. This event and the subsequent misunderstandings make up about 90 percent of the plot, but then there is a twist at the end that takes the romantic story in a much different direction (avid manga readers won't be quite so surprised). Aruko's illustrations capture and heighten the farcical nature of the tale, to the extent that Takeo often looks ugly to the point of ridicule. In an author's note, Kawahara shares that she thinks the protagonist is handsome, but readers might find themselves repelled or at least distracted by his bushy eyebrows, big forehead, and enormous lips. This is a quick read for manga fans who are looking for a light and simple work but not for deep characterization.-Andrea Lipinski, New York Public Library

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014
Grades 10-1 Takeo Goda knows he is the type of guy who is not considered attractive; he is ungainly, large, kind of rough looking, and very awkward with girls. His handsome best friend Makoto Sunakawa, however, rejects every girl who declares her love for him. They have just started high school, and while they are riding a train, Takeo stops a pervert who tries to grope Rinko Yamato, a cute teenage girl. When Rinko shows up at Takeo's house bearing a home-baked cheesecake to thank him, Takeo thinks that she has fallen for Sunakawa. Yamato keeps baking scrumptious sweet and savory treats for Takeo, but the big lunk can't believe such a cute, sweet girl could fall for anyone other than Sunakawa, so he obliviously keeps trying to get the two together. Aruko draws Takeo as a big, burly, almost thuggish teen whose face transforms when he smiles, and while this cute, romantic comedy is shojo manga, or manga intended for girls, it's unusually and entertainingly told from gruff, clueless, and kindhearted Takeo's perspective.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)