"Smile" by Raina Telgemeier

Image Courtesy of: http://teenspace.georgetown.org/files/2010/03/SMILE_COVER_WEB-214x300.jpg

Bibliographic Citation

Title: Smile

Author/Illustrator: Raina Telgemeier

Year of Publication: 2010

Publisher City: New York

Publisher: Graphix

ISBN: 9780545132053

Author/Illustrator Website: http://goraina.com/

Media Used for Artwork: India Ink

Copyright 2010/2011

Nonfiction Graphic Novel

My Top 10 Favorite Picturebooks for Older Readers

Awards

·         Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Title, 2010

·         New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, 2010

·         American Library Association’s Notable Book, 2011

·         Young Adult Library Services Association’s Top 10 Graphic Novels for Teens, 2011

·         Eisner Award nominee, 2011

Annotation

Raina starts of sixth grade as a normal girl, until an accident causes her to loose her front teeth.  What follows is her trials and tribulations of growing up and trying to smile again.

Personal Reaction

                Any preteen/teenager will appreciate this graphic novel memoir from Raina Telgemeier.  It is divided into small vignettes that all revolve around the major mouth reconstructed Telgemeier had to endure.  She does a wonderful job of retelling the often times embarrassing adolescence, while still conveying the lessons she learned.  She does this with humor and grace, instead of lecturing about what the moral of her story is.  This memoir tells the classic coming of age story in a very creative way.

Middle school and high school is a very complicated time for all teens.  Not only are you changing (dreaded property) but so is everyone else.  Friendships change, school gets harder, people mature at different rates (physically and mentally), and a “serious” relationship becomes a possibility.  Telgemeier’s memoir tells all of this, the inclusion of the dramatic issues she had with her teeth makes sure readers will remember it throughout their own trials as teenagers. 

The illustrations are reminiscent of the daily comic strips in a newspaper.  The addition of colors adds a great deal of depth to it, reminiscent of a cartoon.  That is probably why I kept thinking of the show “Braceface.”  Another story that involves a girl forced to wear braces who must endure the trials of being a teen.  Readers who like this story may also be interested in watching the show.