goodreads | Smile - Raina Telgemeier

Title: Smile
Author: Raina Telgemeier
Genre: Graphic memoir, YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 224
Date read: November, 2024

Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's still more to deal a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly.

Excellent story telling and great illustrations. I raced through it, and really enjoyed Raina's way of expressing herself. Parts of it were very uncomfortable to read (I have dentist-phobia, so those parts made me cringe), and other parts rang so true to me, that it felt like Raina was telling my story. Her description of finding a true group of friends to hang out with so closely mirrored my own experience in high school that I almost teared up.

Lovely graphic memoir, and I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series.