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| image from www.amazon.com |
Summary —
Reina Telgemeier’s graphic novel Smile is an autobiographical account of her troubles with orthodontics. Coming home from a girl scout meeting one night in her sixth grade year, Raina and couple of the girls raced to her doorstep, but Raina trips over the curb and lands face first in the concrete. She loses one of her front teeth, while the other is shoved deeply into her gums. Her dentist attempts to reattach the busted tooth, but the procedure is a failure, since both teeth are sunk higher into her mouth. They try using braces and headgear to pull down the two teeth, but that doesn’t work. The next procedure they try is to remove the two front teeth and replace them with a retainer that has prosthetics for her missing teeth. Just about the time Raina is getting used to the retainer, they move on to the next step: using braces to move her remaining teeth into the gap created by the lost two front teeth. This next phase is especially painful, as each time she has her braces tightened, her whole mouth aches. In addition to physically hurting, Raina’s orthodontic travails take their toll on the self-esteem of a young girl trying to navigate her new emotions for Sean and Sammy. But by the time Raina hits eighth grade, she breaks off with the girls she’d been friends with from elementary and makes new friends, more in line with her interests in art and choir. Surrounded by new kids that don’t try to pull her down, she finds herself more self-confident and is better able to cope with the long-term effects of her lost two teeth. Eventually, her other teeth are moved into place and she can have her braces removed. At first, she’s afraid the other kids will see how weird her teeth are, but she soon discovers that it’s all in her head. Her friends think her teeth look fine. The book ends with a group picture of Raina and her new friends at a school dance, where she finally has the courage to smile for the camera.
Lucien’s thoughts —
Telgemeier pulls double duty in this book, both writing and illustrating this wonderful Eisner-winning graphic novel. I was impressed by how deftly she combined her text and images to tell her story of orthodontic procedure after procedure to attempt to restore her mouth. You feel for Raina as she faces each new step along the way and can sympathize for the challenges her mouth cause to her self-esteem. Although she manages to come through it stronger and more self-confident, it was a difficult journey full of self-doubt and pain. I think this book is a great novel to give to kids who have to have braces or other orthodontic work done. They can relate to the protagonist and see that there is an end in sight, even if it’s several years down the road. This is also a great book to share with people who have a narrow view of graphic novels, expecting superheroes and spandex. Raina is my new favorite heroine, sans cape. Telgemeier captures the ups and downs of those awkward years between elementary and high school in this pleasantly quick read. I look forward to her next graphic novel, Drama.
Librarian's use—
As many kids in middle school have to have braces, retainers, or other various orthodontia, I think this graphic novel is a great discussion starter for kids to talk about their dentist stories. As Telgemeier writes in the Author’s Note, “I have a lot of faith and trust in dentistry, and how it can improve people’s lives.” The novel can give kids the confidence to talk about a subject that is often painful to discuss: one’s self-image as a result of orthodontics. Brace face, metal mouth, jaws, and other countless insults are based on kids’ fears of looking different than their peers. It’s great to have a resource that paints a positive portrait of dental work.
Other reviews —
Just, J. (2011). Smile. Horn book magazine, 87 (1), 18.
It feels like we need a new word for a new form—gremoir?—but until then, graphic novel memoir will have to do. Smile contains fictional elements but is based on a real-life accident that makes riveting reading. Above all, it is about a down-to-earth girl named Raina who has to survive middle school and figure out who her friends really are. There are many books that deal with bullying, but perhaps few that kids, especially girls, will recognize the way they will recognize it here, Using the skillful hallmarks of comic style, with speech bubbles and exclamation points, Telgemeier tells an enormously satisfying story about a girl defeating her own self-doubt and coming into her own.
Stevenson, D. (2010). Smile. Bulletin of the center for children’s books, 63 (7), 306.
This graphic-style memoir focuses on the author's years of adolescent transition, from sixth grade to ninth grade; they're marked not just by the usual awkwardness but also by cosmetic trials after she savages her two front teeth in a fall and undergoes extensive dental and orthodontic work. Raina's experiences are otherwise generally reflective of her age—she crushes on and is crushed on, spends time with good friends and not-so-good friends—and they're steeped in her era, with her experiencing the release of Disney's Little Mermaid and the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. The chronicle sometimes seems a little more like a long anecdote than a shaped narrative, but it touches on enough common and emotionally accessible experience for reader empathy. Telgemeier has a fine eye—or memory—for detail, whether it be the thrill of grossing everybody out with a retainer containing a pair of false teeth, the way ostensible friends ramp teasing up into bullying, or the preteen predilection for taking everything to heart. The art has a friendly, curvy-lined informality reminiscent of Lynn Johnston's in For Better or For Worse, and the design is conventional, even a little staid, but easy-viewing. The very ordinariness of Raina's experience makes her an accessible Everygirl, and young readers will find in her a plausible mirror—or crystal ball—for their own adolescent experiences.
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