Reader, I cried.

Now, I don’t usually get overly emotional while reading… well, pretty much anything. I can’t even remember the last time I got choked up while reading.

But Jen Wang’s Stargazing? Yep, that broke me.

I should probably explain. This isn’t a Supersad™ story. There’s no parental death. In fact, (mild spoiler) nobody dies at all. The scene that got me is actually incredibly sweet and not even remotely “sad.”

But as a parent – and as the parent of a girl roughly the same age as protagonists Christine and Moon – it delivered an emotional gut punch out of the blue. I was not prepared.

Christine and Moon are two Chinese American middle schoolers who, on paper, are polar opposites. Christine is just looking for the next A in school, and Moon is convinced that her true home is in the stars and she doesn’t even belong on Earth.

Christine is a stereotypical “good student” who spends her overscheduled time doing homework, playing violin, and studying Chinese. Moon is a lot more carefree, lives mostly in her imagination, doesn’t speak Chinese, and sometimes sees visions of celestial beings who speak to her.

Nevertheless, once they become neighbors, they’re drawn together (somewhat beyond their control) and quickly bond over a love of K-pop.

Stargazing follows their fast friendship, the quirks that develop between them as their opposing forces collide, middle school social dynamics, how kids react in the face of an unfamiliar catastrophe, and the “healing power” of friendship.

The truth is, the less that’s spoiled about the story, the better. I’m sure you can read a plot synopsis somewhere online, but you really should just read the book.

Jen Wang has gifted us all with an incredibly touching, absolutely heartwarming (and heartwrenching) story of friendship. It zigs when you expect it to zag, it brings to life two wonderful – and wonderfully realistic – characters, and it’s the most genuinely beautiful graphic novel I’ve read all year.

And please, be sure to read Wang’s afterword. It puts the whole thing in an entirely different light and will have you instantly flipping back to the beginning to read it again.

Book blurbs – you know, those quotes from famous people you find on book covers that say amazing things about the book to entice you to pick it up – are typically fairly benign. And they almost never truly “say” anything to me. But Raina Telgemeier’s quote on Stargazing is 100% on point: “Intimate and sweet, I’d like to hand Stargazing to every kid I know.”

Indeed, as soon as I finished the book, I immediately handed it to my daughter and said, “Read this. Now.” I then handed it to my wife with similar advice. And if I could gift this to every kid from now until eternity, I would.

Between Raina and me, I feel like we could get Stargazing in most kids’ hands. Well, it’d mostly be thanks to Raina. But I’d help. In my way.