Smile
The true story of how Raina severely injured her two front teeth when she was in the sixth grade, and the dental drama that followed!
Sisters
Raina can't wait to be a big sister. Amara is cute, but she's also cranky and mostly prefers to play by herself. Their relationship doesn't improve much over the years... can they figure out how to get along?
Guts
Raina has tummy trouble, and it seems to coincide with her worries about food, school, family, and changing friendships. A thoughtful, charming, and funny true story about growing up and gathering the courage to face -- and eventually conquer -- fear.
★★★☆☆
In this graphic memoir set in the early 90s in San Francisco, author Raina Telgemeier illustrates herself as a 6th grader who takes a bad fall (courtesy of a friend not paying attention) during a Girl Scouts meet-up one night. Raina ends up with two severely damaged front teeth. While her mom had been discussing the possibility of braces prior to this incident (to correct Raina's overbite), now young Raina is firmly locked into extensive dental work for the foreseeable future.
So begins an arduous journey of not only braces, but lengthy surgeries, headgear, the whole nine yards. During all this, poor Raina is also stuck simultaneously navigating her way through the various growing stages / experiences (good and bad) that come with the junior high and high school years. Even though her friends don't seem too bothered about her dental work, for some reason they choose to lock in on Raina's pigtails as a target for ridiculing her. Also, you gotta question friends who are so comfortable calling you a "nobody nerd". Even her father seems insensitive at times to her adjustment period for all these new changes in her life. At least her mother does her best to be patient and kind with the whole situation!
The dentist office that does all the work on her mouth seems to resemble one of those discount dental places I had to suffer through as a kid. You know, the ones set up in strip malls that take in people that have zero or minimal coverage for low income families. They might be better now, but when I was a kid, they were notorious for being staffed with heavy-handed dentists and hygienists who would seriously do a butcher number on sensitive / young gums. ANYWAY, while shouldering the stress of all the dental work that stretches out for years, causing her intense headaches the whole time, Raina is also trying to make sense of new boy crushes and the frustrating moments (mostly around physical changes) that make up the transition from girl to young woman.
Then there's the sister. This relationship is explored more in depth in the follow-up book, Sisters, but in Smile we are first introduced to Raina's younger sister, Amara. In a nutshell, the girls don't have the easiest bond. In fact, Amara -- at least in the beginning --- pretty relentlessly picks on Raina. But Sisters gets into how this relationship eventually evolved into something more soft and respectful. Though maybe not a perfect Hallmark image of sisterhood, Raina illustrates that there was definitely emotional growth for them both over the years, and that in itself is not too shabby, considering the state of their bond (nearly non-existent for awhile) in the early years.
Telgemeier handles the sensitive moments of these formative years with great heart and humor (to be expected, she's writing about her own life story). The light color palette of the panels adds to the fun (and sometimes more tender) vibe of childhood. There's much here that I'd wager most anyone can find relatable from their own childhood experiences. Maybe not identically, but you're bound to find common points in Raina's story. Who can't relate to difficult sibling bonds, friends that slowly stop being true friends, the struggle of trying to figure out what's going on with your body and brain as you grow up... we've all been there, in one way or another.
I was trying to remember what the art style kept reminding me of, and then it came to me --- the comic For Better or Worse by Lynn Johnston!
*Note: While the artwork itself is done by author Raina Telgemeier, the coloring process in SMILE is done by Stephanie Yue.
★★★★☆
In this companion book to the graphic memoir Smile, author Raina Telgemeier goes into more detail about the tense relationship between herself and sister Amara. Set during a family road trip from San Francisco to a family reunion in Colorado, unavoidable close quarters force the girls to finally work out their differences... or at the very least start the process.
*No surprise, Telgemeier dedicates this book to her sister.
It's nice to see the sisters finally find common ground, after the tenseness between them in Smile, but the mother here does not seem as chill as she did in the first book. The plot sometimes hints at troubles in marriage as a possible suspect to the mood shift.
I mentioned in my review of Smile that the artwork style somewhat reminded me of the comic strip For Better or Worse by Lynn Johnston, and whaddya know, that comic gets a shout-out in this book, when Raina is talking with her cousins about her love of comics! But speaking of the art style of Telgemeier's books, I really like how in both Smile and Sisters, the flashback sequences are printed on yellow-tinted paper.
Thought really went into the layout of these stories, which I appreciate. To help readers connect even more to these "characters" (since this is a graphic memoir) and their stories, Telgemeier provides readers, at the back of the book, photos of her actual family members, so you can put a real face with their cartooned counterpart.
And I gotta say, the whole thing with the snake at the end was pretty funny!
*Note: While the artwork itself is done by author Raina Telgemeier, the coloring process in SMILE is done by Braden Lamb.
★★★★☆
In this third installment in Telgemeier's graphic memoir series of her childhood years, the topic is childhood anxiety. Taking us back to her 4th grade year, young Raina begins to be plagued by intense stomach cramping she cannot explain. While Raina in the story doesn't immediately make the connection, readers can easily see trigger situations that could possibly be the culprit --- Raina's worrying thoughts over troubles at home, school, her life in general, shifts in diet / levels of hunger / interest in food.
Initially, Raina writes the whole situation off as just a matter of her picking up the stomach bug that's been going around. But little by little, we see the things that are really stressing Raina's mind. She's coming up against her first major school bully. She's asked to give an important oral presentation in class. Some of her female classmates are already starting to get their periods, which freaks her out a little. Her best friend is moving, changing schools, AND becoming friends with Raina's bully! To add to the stress, living arrangements get moved around when Raina's grandmother moves in and to make room, Raina is forced to share a room with her parents. (That would've been a nightmare for me growing up! I value my personal space too much.)
On a personal note, I love the little nods in here to things from my childhood -- special dinners at Sizzler, and the one square of artwork that showed Tupperware I could easily identify because my mom had that exact set! LOL
Just seeing this picture, I could remember what the tops of those containers felt like!
Over time, Raina's food intake turns minimal, she develops insomnia and a phobia of vomiting (emetophobia). When she has a bad case of gas one night, she then develops a fear of what foods might trigger another incident, further adding to her developing eating disorder.
Raina's parents decide to take her to a therapist. Raina's therapist teaches her breathing techniques to manage her anxiety. She also shows her an exercise which has Raina focus on her feet when she feels like the world around her is spinning. Little by little, Raina finds healthy coping mechanisms to help quiet her mind, finding much peace in drawing comics illustrating scenes going on around her.
Guts offers up a platform for discussions of important matters that are seldom tackled straight on in middle grade reading material. But these discussions do need to happen! There are kids out there most definitely struggling, unsure of where to turn to for help or how to even start the conversation about it. So, props to Telgemeier for putting the topic out there for kids who need the representation and parents brave enough to hear them out. In addition to this trilogy of books, Telgemeier also published a separate Share Your Smile hardcover journal for young readers to write out their struggles and feelings within their own lives as they work through this series.
In her acknowledgements page, Telgemeier gives shout-outs to author Shannon Hale and graphic novelist Vera Brosgol (Anya's Ghost).
*Note: While the artwork itself is done by author Raina Telgemeier, the coloring process in SMILE is done by Braden Lamb.
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