Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Smile by Raina Telgemeier is a graphic novel of the story of what happened when the author broke her front teeth in 6th grade. Poor Raina can't catch a break. One her way home from Girl Scouts one night, a friend challenges her to a race. Raina trips and falls, knocking out both top front teeth. Thus begins the painful (both physically and emotionally) middle school experience for Raina. She endures one dental treatment after another in an attempt to recreate the appearance of healthy, normal front teeth. Throughout her three years of middle school and all of these procedures, Raina is plagued by a mean group of friends. While she feels like she fits in with them, they go out of their way to tease Raina and make fun of her. Once, even de-pantsing her in front of the entire school! Fortunately, when she enters high school, Raina is at the end of her dental procedures and close to a perfect smile and she finds a new group of friends who accept her for who she is - crazy teeth and all!

I absolutely loved this book! The author and I are about the same age, so it was easy for me to slip into Raina's shoes. My favorite part of the book was when they were showing off their retainers and Raina's friend had one with a picture of Joey McIntyre imprinted on hers. That's how I knew we were in middle school at the same time period - Joey was my favorite New Kid on the Block, too! My husband and I took turns reading a chapter a night to our son, and all three of us really enjoyed the story. I would recommend it to anyone who is in (or has ever been in) middle school.