Sweet heavenly Monday afternoons, the tears! Tragic love stories are not usually my jam, but Blue is the Warmest Color is a lovely book. High school Clementine sees a blue-haired young woman and her girlfriend strolling casually through Lille's main square, and her life is never the same. Haunted by arousing and disturbing dreams, Clem begins to question her sexuality and seeks out advice from her guy friend Valentin who is slightly more comfortable with being gay. The two teenagers spend an evening in local gay bars where Clem finally meets the blue-haired Emma. Their love affair struggles at first but then spins into a hard-to-believe everlong commitment, but hey - it's romantic! The story feels distinctly French to me: students hanging out drinking in cafe-bars, attending workers' rights protests, and working with art collectives. At the same time, the message about homophobia and the personal struggles with awakening sexual desires are universal. The book does have fairly graphic sex scenes and teenage overconsumption of alcohol and some drug abuse, so it might not fit into many school libraries. However, the book could really be great for some teens...like a If I Stay/The Fault in Our Stars for girls who like girls? (That's me guessing since I've yet to read those tear-jerkers). I look forward to seeing the cinematic adaptation which won the Palme D'Or at last year's Cannes Film Fest. Note to self: stock up on tissues before watching. 
 Oh, and sadly the library here doesn't have the original BD en francais! Qu'est-ce qui se passe, Canada? On parle francais en Ontario aussi..