In 6th grade, Raina's just a regular kid - going to Girl Scout meetings, figuring out middle school, and (NOT) looking forward to getting braces. And then she trips and falls on her way home and lands - on her face. At first nothing seems to be broken - until she looks down and sees one of her front teeth on the ground. The other one definately isn't her mouth either - but nobody can find it on the ground.Raina's parents rush her to the dentist, where they put the knocked out tooth back in, pull down the other front tooth down from where it was pushed up inside her gums (does your mouth hurt yet?! Mine does!), and then send her home. When she wakes up in the morning, she's got a weird cast covering up her front teeth, and she's talking with a lisp. Awesome. Still, it's only for a few weeks, while her teeth heal - right?
Nope. When the cast comes off, Raina's front teeth have been set in waaay too high - making her look, well, kinda like a vampire. The next four and a half years of Raina's life are about to spent in dentist, orthodonist, endodontist, and periodontist (I had no idea there were so many kinds of dontists... ouch!) chairs, getting her teeth pushed, pulled, braced, extracted, cleaned, headgeared, rubber banded and all other kinds of horrible. And not only that, Raina has to deal with the horrors of middle school and growing up too - crushes, frenemies (as if she didn't already feel like a freak, friends that make fun of your teeth? Not cool), zits, band class, school dances, irritating little sisters, getting her ears pierced, a major earthquake (Raina lives in San Francisco) and figuring out who she wants to be when she grows up. With all that going on, will she even feel like using her new smile?
If you've ever had braces (7 years, guys, SEVEN YEARS) or a really bad experience at the dentist, this one's for you! The best part about this great little graphic novel is that it's a true story - author and artist Raina Telgemeier really did knock out her two front teeth in 6th grade, and everything that happens here really happened to her. When you read about everything she had to survive in middle and high school - well, you probably won't mind the rubber bands on your braces quite so much when you're done reading Smile!
Megan
(now reading Shine by Lauren Myracle, on Katie's rave recommendation!)