I have been reading more graphic novels this past year and thoroughly enjoyed Raina Telgemeier’s Drama and Sisters. Now, I finally got back to her earlier and most successful graphic novel (actually, a graphic memoir), Smile, and liked it just as much as her others.
Smile takes place
in the years before Sisters and, like
that other graphic memoir, is a story from Raina’s own childhood. It focuses on
Raina’s adventures in orthodontia, which were far more extensive than most kids’
experiences just getting braces. It begins when Raina is twelve years old, and
she knocks out her two front teeth in a freak accident, tripping in the road on
a dark night, playing around with her friends after a Girl Scout meeting.
That accident changes Raina’s orthodontic plan from a mere
set of braces to an elaborate years-long plan to somehow rebuild her smile.
Along the way, she suffers through a lot of pain and discomfort, as well as
embarrassment from being the kid in middle school with no front teeth! It’s a slow,
difficult process.
This is more than a story about teeth and orthodontia,
though. It’s a story about growing up, finding out who you are, finding the
right group of friends, and becoming a teenager. Raina has extra obstacles to
face, given her unique dental situation, but the other challenges she
encounters are things that will be familiar to any adolescent: trying to fit
in, wanting to be cool, having a crush, and finding friends who like you just
the way you are.
As with Sisters,
Telgemeier perfectly captures the agonies and joys of adolescence and growing
up. Her colorful drawings are realistic and filled with details that complete
the story. She remembers exactly what it is like to be a young teen and depicts
those experiences with warmth and wit.
214 pages, Scholastic
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