A lovely middle grade graphic novel about a friendship between two girls exploring the world of love and relationships that isn’t afraid to cover important and difficult topics like slut shaming or bullying even despite the overall lighthearted tone. The artwork is breathtakingly beautiful and full of colour, and I adored the friendship between the two main characters. I just hope future volumes of this series will be a bit less heteronormative and will introduce some queer kids rep too.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Europe Comics for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is such a gorgeous lighthearted graphic novel. The art work is so beautiful and colourful. perfect for a younger reader who enjoys graphic novels.

Such a lighthearted graphic novel that would be enjoyable for all ages.

Young girls exploring the idea of love by learning others stories was great. It shows that everything is not as it may appear on the outside and that everyone has different views based on home life.

Honest review from my 9 year old daughter:

School of Love was a good, sweet, relatable story about two girls who try to figure out the meaning of Love. The pictures were great and had an anime feel. I would recommend this and any sequels to my friends!

Beautiful BEAUTIFUL book UGH I Loved it! The atmosphere of this novel whips me back to middle school, in the way they talk to what they learn to the friendships and lightheartedness layered on the dark reality of growing into yourself. Amazing art, wistful story, great pacing.

4.25⭐

What a nice way to kick off the 2022 readings, thank you so much Netgalley for accepting this copy from me in exchange for an honest review.

We have the story of two friends, Linon and Gerance, two 11 year old girls looking to answer a question, What is love? This question leads them to conduct an investigation with all the girls at school, and as they are investigating they are going to discover that not everything they believed about love is true and it is not always as it looks.

It is the first volume of a series of graphic novels that I can't stop smiling, the story is very nice, the art is beautiful and I love how it handles the theme of discovering what love is, because for each of us love represents or means different things and this is what our protagonists will discover.

It is a fairly light read, very enjoyable and fun to read, because we see it through two 11 year old girls; in addition, the story is telling us more things that are relevant to the theme of love as the passion of people for certain things but do not share them for fear of being singled out and made fun of, or how they are betrayed and create a shield against people.

I hope all these themes and more will be developed in the other volumes because I am going to be super happy to read them! and I really highly recommend this story if you haven't read it yet!

I would like to thank the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this eBook.

First of all, I LOVED the colour palette and the illustrations in this book. The story was cute and it was very simple and easy to follow. It would make an amazing gift for many tweens out there.

This is such a lovely graphic novel and kind of whimsical. The artwork is good and the story has a good pace without being overloaded with text. The artwork is expressive too and the colouring is bright and attractive.

Two eleven year olds decide to investigate love. Why are people attracted to each other? Does love last? Why are some people popular? etc etc.

They investigate by interviewing the other children at school, some of whom seem to spend their lunchtimes hiding from the other children so that they can swot in peace, or hiding from the other children to snog in peace.

The two girls question a number of their school mates and they realise that love is varied and different and so are people. They also reflect on friendship and their personal experiences of family love.

It is a lovely story. The children spend a lot of time thinking about boyfriends and what it would be like to have one and they see the ups and downs of love through an eleven year old perspective, but by the end of the investigation they have learnt a lot about their fellow schoolmates and about themselves.

Alas my 11 year old self never had the time to fret about boys and love. I was dispatched to a ghastly boarding school in the middle of Nowhere in Nigeria. Most of my teen years were spent trying to survive the terrible food and homesickness. This is an enjoyable book though and funny in places.

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Guarantee and Linon, two 11 year old girls, conduct an investigation to find out about love. They find out about the highs and lows that go with love, but there’s not much plot to the story. It mainly consists of them talking to different students at their school. The character names in this book are strange. In addition to the two lead characters, we have the “cute girl” at school, named Enjoy Parasol. Other characters have more normal names like Charlie and Noa. This book is a bit too young for my 7th and 8th graders so I won’t be purchasing it, but it might be fun for 5th or 6th graders.

Synopsis: Middle-school best friends Linon and Garance decide to conduct a little research around their school to see how different students perceive the concept of love.

My Thoughts: Plot and Themes (3.5/5) – What’s love you ask me? Well, I’d say it’s an uncontrollable sensation so universal and subjective that people just can’t shut up about their love for understanding love. All sardonic remarks aside, I found it interesting how the book explored the idea from a young adolescent/preteen perspective since the characters are at the beginning stages of that point where one forms musings about these types of complex feelings.
Considering how adults can hardly muster a full grasp of it, it comes as no surprise that the responses of these cohorts of kids with limited world experience would be a messy enigma. This in turn leads to a sundry of results ranging from humorous to sweet and even poignant at times.

Characters and Dialogue (4/5) – The main duo is a strong one that works well together with Limon idealism and excitement complementing Garance's subdued emotions and general skepticism. The latter’s demeanor is later revealed to be a byproduct of her rough family situation. Some of the other subjects interviewed have well fleshed-out characterizations beyond their superficial archetypes such as the blond popular girl Enjoy Parasol (don’t ask me who invented that oddball name) and goth Adèle. Meanwhile, other students including the inseparable twins Cloé and Cléo, know-all of school romances Charlie, and overdramatic couple Lou and Morgan.
I found the dialogue realistic enough with the exchanges feeling like something I would hear out of a middle-schooler, albeit sanitized for the target audience and without the in-your-face references to modern technology which was refreshing.

Art (5/5) – It had a pleasant, fuzzy vibe to it because of the smooth choice of colors and brightly light backgrounds. Furthermore, the character designs were appealing in their soft edges and loosely anime-esque aesthetic despite being distinctly Western. Another commendable quality would also be the characters’ diverse and colorful sense of fashion which makes the setting more believable.

Final Thoughts: Overall, I had quite a bit of fun with this title and would happily read the coming installments when I’m in the mood for something light. I’d mostly recommend it to middle-grade readers though older ones might get a smile at some of the goofier episodes at the school and more audacious themes.

Thanks to Europe Comics and NetGalley for providing me with my first advance ebook copy in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars. Thank you Netgalley for the arc. This was a cute young readers graphic novel where a pair of friends explore what is the meaning of love. It is a little tropey but overall enjoyable. The art style is beautiful.

Quite a strong graphic novel for tweenaged girls, and nothing to worry anybody else from any other age range, this has two girl friends try and work out for themselves what love is and does to you. The school's official hottest and easiest girls have secrets, break-ups and make-ups must be observed – and yet the two girls also have their own different relationships with the emotion. If you're in the target audience this is four star + material, if not it'll look twee and basic at times, but never offensively so.

Omg it's so cute!

First, this graphic novel is beautiful. Every frame looks like art from Deviantart or Pinterest 😃

Second, this history is so cozy. Two young girls (11 yo) try to understand what love is. They are watching school couples and asking them about love. There are so many wise quotes here about seeing love, perception of love. And about friendship.

Warning: There are also some sexual abuse, bullying and divorce scenes.

Read it if you like Heartstopper, I believe in a thing called love, Never Have I Ever series

Thanks NetGalley for ebook!

TW: Bullying and taking advantage of someone sexually.

I really enjoyed this story and will definitely be keeping up with future volumes. The story is so sweet and innocent but has some darker undertones. I love the messages the girls come up with about what love can be like, and how despite everything bad about it, love is still good to have overall. I like how the girls discover that their female classmates with certain reputations are not what they seem and they are more than their reputation. Overall this is a great graphic novel and I love the character growth the girls experience throughout the story.

4.5/5 Stars

I know this book has 11 year old main characters, but it does not pass the Bechdel test.
I don't like that this book is so forceful in its gossiping ways of what girl is with what boy (where are the queer characters, too?).
It also made the literal stalking of Enjoy Parasol to appear normal. EVERY single boy has her class schedule? That is so creepy! The poor girl has to disappear at lunch so she can be left alone. Because every single boy finds her hot and they won't leave her alone. That is not okay. That was not even addressed, and it should have been.
And Adele was sexually assaulted and then labelled a slut for it. No teachers or adults listened or helped.

Far out this is not something I would be showing to kids unless it was a "this is what NOT to do" thing.

The artwork was fantastic, though.

Content warnings for: HP references, sexual assault, slut shaming, guys ranking girls from "hot to not" (and then girls doing it in retaliation), stalking, harrassment, talks of parental divorce, physical fighting.

This was the cutest graphic novel I’ve ever read! It is a story about 2 young girls who are best friends, one who seems to be a hopeless romantic, and one who doesn’t believe in love. They both go on a journey to find out what love really is. This story is filled with cute little scenes and the most adorable illustrations, I throughly enjoyed it! I would recommend this book most to pre-teens.

School of love is about two best friends who want to know what love means. They begin by looking at couples at their school, and their relationships, as well as looking at the individual and some of their classmates' stories. This shows them examples of how love is formed and falls apart.

My favourite part is the illustrations, the colour and blends are absolutely stunning. I like how the story flows, how the language isn't too difficult to follow and how each character has their own stories and personalities that manage to shine through.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but one of the two main characters is a person of colour, and I feel like the writers are white or are of another BAME ethic minority. This is because there's certain things about the character, that a writer of colour would include that these authors haven't. One example is that the girls often have sleepovers at each others houses, but the main character never wears a bonnet, wrap or turben. They don't have a silk pillowcase either, which she would need to protect her hair.

However, I did really enjoy this book. Depending on the maturity of the child, I would recommend this book for children aged between 12-15 as there's a small mention of sexual activity that's slipped in quite early on. I'm really looking forward to the next volume and to see where this story goes.

Rated: 3.5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A cute story about discovering what is love for two 11 years old little girls, who start investigating at their school. I loved the art style and it reminded me a little bit of W.I.T.C.H by Elisabetta Gnone. It was enjoyable and beautiful with some cute details.

I get where this book is coming from and what it is trying to do, but it's filled with stereotypical characters and platitudes about love, it's just as cheesy as the romance movie it was making fun of in the beginning. Wanting to try to understand the world of love, Linon and Garance decide to start investigating what actually is love. Except they find out some really basic things that I think any teenager figures out. I'm not sure where they plan to go with the next part of the story, but I can't see recommending this to any middle schooler/teenager unless they want an easy fluff story to read. The artwork is pretty, all the characters have unique names, there's a smattering of actual personal conflict and development, but it was just a very basic story.

This was such a cute and beautiful representation of love from the perspective of middle schooler kids. I had so much fun. The illustrations were lit and the storyline was perfect! I was looking for a heartwarming read and this book unexpectedly delivered. I was so happyyyy. My smiles could tell.