Smile is an autobiographical graphic novel that was both written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier. This book follows Raina on a four-year journey, starting with her in the 6th grade, and telling of her dental problems along with other issues she faces, such as friendship drama, crushes, and insecurities. The story starts off with Raina going to a girl scouts meeting, when she returns home her and her friend start a race to the porch leading to Raina tripping and knocking out her two front teeth. What follows is Raina undergoing numerous different dental treatments while simultaneously dealing with other things going on in her life such as friendship drama, insecurities, and an earthquake. Using a simplistic style, Raina Telgemeier tells…show more content… It begins with her laying in the dentist chair with the gas mask on her face then in the following panel shows the dentists tools. The last panel on this page drifts away from this a bit and gives a completely black panel, with what the reader assumes is the dentist, saying “just try to relax” (95). This panel, along with the previous ones, shows her falling asleep and slipping away from what is going on. This is even clearer to see on the following pages in which we get a flashback or dream from her. The author signifies this by putting a yellow film like color over the pages to help signify it’s not the current time line. The memory she experiences while under the gas shows that her losing a tooth at a bounce house, which points to how in the real-life versions the dentist is removing her tooth. During her eighth grade graduation, we can also get a glimpse at how she feels through her body language without her even saying the words. When her dad asks if she wants to get pictures with her friends, she responds by saying “my friends aren’t a very sentimental bunch” (171), but through on her face and the way her head and shoulders droop you can see her looking upset, while in the panel immediately following we get a glimpse of her friends laughing, hugging, and crying looking like they actually are the sentimental type. Just by looking at the way they act, the reader can see that Raina is drifting away from those she considered as being her friends and that she doesn’t feel like she is included with in the
