Smile!

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

This deserves a post onto itself, if only because I'm hoping to reach an audience of teachers. If at all possible, you need to get a copy of this comic for your classroom and school library, and here's why.

Smile is the autobiographical tale of 7th grade girl, Raina, who needs to get braces. Shock of all shocks, she's not looking forward to them and is very worried about how she'll look and what others will think. But it gets worse! On her way home from Girl Guides one night, she and her friends race to her doorway, only for Raina to trip and break her two front teeth. Thus begins her harrowing journey from 7th grade to high school, as told through the various operations, procedures and dental hardware she has to endure in order to regain a semblance of a regular mouthful of teeth.

The oral adventures (get your mind out of the gutter) serve as a frame for a story about a typical girl who wants to fit in, wants to be cool and popular and of course, wants to get the boy. Her friends are kind of jerks. Their jokes are always a little too mean to be funny but she keeps hanging around with them because, hey, what else can she do about it? When they decide to pants her as a joke, though, she decides they've gone too far and she comes to the conclusion that she's better off alone than with friends like these. The book ends with her making new friends that she really gets along with and finally getting rid of her braces once and for all. Also, she doesn't get the boy, which was a refreshing change from usual youth-lit endings.

I really identified with her decision to break out on her own. My circle of friends from grades 7 to 9 were similar in their insulting sense of humour, or rather, they were considerably worse and I was as bad as any of them. We constantly put each other down and even took turns voting out the "weakest" among us. Usually when we'd vote a guy out, he'd still follow us around and it just gave us an extra reason to pick on him. It wasn't quite so funny when it was my turn, in grade 9, but like Raina, it was the best thing that could have happened to me at the time.

If you can reach one kid with this comic and get them to see that they're never stuck with shitty friends and that what's in your mouth doesn't dictate who you are, then it'll be worth it.

Other important info for teachers :

-It is entirely child appropriate. No sexual themes, no cursing and no violence whatsoever.
- It is available through the Scholastic catalogue that most schools have access to.
- It is available in French (Souris!)