Kirby’s Lessons For Falling (In Love) by Laura Gao. HarperAlley, 2025. 9780063067790. 302pp.
Kirby Tan is a climbing prodigy with a nemesis (AJ), an awesome best friend (Eric), and a supportive family (her very Christian mother, her younger brother Bowen, and her grandfather). After she falls in a competition, an injury forces her to take time away from climbing. She needs to improve her English grade, and now she needs an extracurricular activity, too, so she decides to become the new astrologist for the newspaper club. That’s where she meets the outgoing and passionate Beatrix Santos, who takes Kirby under her wing to work on a new column, “Ask the Universe” and also helps Kirby with English. Together they offer advice based on the requestor’s star signs (as well as a little secret help, which often backfires). And after they’ve been hanging out for a while, it’s clear the two are getting closer and closer.
Gao’s art, especially the way she uses details in the panels and the way the story unfolds, helps make the pacing perfect. Eric and Astrid (another newspaper club member) are always around, making this a tale of friendship as much as one of high school romance. Kirby has a great relationship with her grandfather, whose health is failing, and her mother isn’t a caricature though she is pushing Kirby toward a churchy life.
