My life didn't magically turn perfect after that. I didn't "get the guy," as they say. But he was always friendly to me.
Instead, I threw my passion into things I enjoyed, rather than feeling sorry for myself.
Before I got hooked on novels, I also had that era where I mostly just read books with a lot of pictures. The younger me really finds books with a lot of text intimidating, so even though there are stories there, I still sometimes avoid reading them. But of 'course that didn't last long because I soon liked reading novels, and eventually I got hooked on them. However, there are things that we can't change, and for me, one of them is the giddiness I felt whenever I saw illustrations in a book. So now join me as I share with you one of the graphic novels that definitely left an imprint on my younger years, and it's Smile
About the Book
Smile is a graphic novel that was written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier. Its first edition was published in 2010 by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers. So to give you a brief peek of what's this graphic novel all about it's basically based on the personal experiences of the author herself, though of 'course some names, places and incidents have been modified in service of the story. Like any other girl, Raina—our main character and narrator—just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But life has other plans for her because one night after their Girl Scout meeting, a life-changing accident happened to her.
She tripped and fell flat on her face, thus unfortunately knocking out her two front teeth—and what followed was her long and exhausting dental journey. However aside from her dental problem, she also had to deal with a lot of problematic things along the way: a major natural catastrophe, boys and crushes, and ultimately her friends who are far from being friend material. From middle school to high school—it has been a constant struggle for her, but will she ever finish her long dental journey on a happy note? Or will it end up like a tragedy with her smile forever lost?
I never expected that a graphic novel would sustain my reading attention before. Most of the graphic narratives I read before are short comics, so it never occurred to me that I could read this whole book in less than a couple of hours. Since it's made up personal experiences of the author, it kinda felt different to me because it's like me peeking into her life. Every page were whole new experiences that were shared, so I find them memorable. Further, what made me hooked up to this is the ability of the author to narrate even those unfortunate things that happened to her in a lighter and even comic manner.
Like for example, that part where she broke up with her old friends. Some author would portray it mostly with melancholy, but as for her, she made her experiences lighthearted to read. Yes, there's still that sadness, yet it was satisfying because those kind of friends doesn't deserve her. I felt her frustration and loneliness because there's really that point where people close to us change. I also experienced that and it feels awful. I've been with her for years, but when we started high school, everything seemed to just change. Unlike Raina, we have no fight or even apparent reason why we drifted away. It's just happened, and when that started, the bond we had before just snapped all of a sudden. Perhaps Raina's drifting away from her friends is more definite than us because she got to explode in front of her insensitive friends—a closure that was definitely well served.
Even though I didn't experience any major dental drama—save from my occasional toothaches—I can still relate to the way puberty hits hard with her. And that I guess is one of the great things about this graphic novel because everybody can relate to that awkward period. I believe all of us experienced puberty and all of the different not-so-good symptoms of it—especially the ones that girls have to experience. And like her, reminiscing about those times somehow made me laugh. The way she portrayed her embarrassment made me relate, cringe and reminisce about those embarrassing of mine also.
Overall, her story may not be like ours but I guess the main point about it is that like her, we all have painful experiences. Some may experience life dramas, love life problems, and even identity struggles but I know that at the later point of our lives, we'll be able to look back and laugh at those moments. Of 'course problems would always be there as long as we live, but like Raina let's focus more on the people and interests that brought out things we liked about ourselves. Ahhh I'm totally slipping on my reflection mode, so before I overly get caught in it, I'd rate this one now, and that would be 4.8/5.
So that would be all for today, bookworms. I hope you enjoyed my book review and always keep in mind that it's not spoiler-free, so beware!
All the pictures used were taken by yours truly, ridgette while the last picture was edited in Canva.