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Staff Picks

Staff Pick (December09): Smile SC/HC
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From the moment that she trips and loses her two front incisors in the sixth grade to the day the braces finally come off in high school, young Raina Telgemeier endures casts, false teeth, headgear, bloody deep cleanings and extractions.  It’d be easy to write off Smile as a graphic novel about braces, but there’s more to this ordeal than orthodontics.

If anything, Raina’s braces serve as a framework for the larger coming-of-age narrative.  Covering everything from earthquakes to school dances (and how many of us could even tell the difference at 16?), Telgemeier recounts some very formative experiences with an in-the-moment frankness guided by intelligent reflection.

This story is smart enough to recognize that life-changing events can be unforeseen and abrupt, like Raina’s fall, or slow but inevitable, like an eventual split with her friends...  And as much as Raina’s literal smile is an object in this book, the ever-present suggestion to “smile!” is the real star and driving subject.  How do any of us—awkward, confused and insecure — come through the teen years smiling?  Telgemeier’s answer is in this excellent graphic novel.

See PREVIEWS page 236.

 






     

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