Non-Fiction for Youth Review: Smile by Raina Telgemeie

• Age Range: 8 - 12 years
• Grade Level: 3 - 7
• Lexile Measure: GN410L (What's this?)
• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Graphix; 1 edition (February 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0545132061
• ISBN-13: 978-0545132060

I came across this title when I was looking for biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs geared toward youth. I love a good coming of age story so I thought I would check this one out. To be completely and totally honest, I didn't like it at all. I felt it was boring. I didn't really feel like the author had a story worth telling. I didn't find the characters interesting and they didn't seem to have any depth whatsoever. Not even the main character was very well-formed or interesting. This book did nothing for me, BIG BUT... it wasn't written for me. As a future librarian it's not ever going to be my job to like all the books, but it is absolutely my job to understand why everyone else likes the books. 

So, here we are. Interestingly, when my 8 and 10 year old daughters, who are right in the target audience for this title saw I was reading it, I gained about ten cool points. My 8 year old told me she had been wanting to read it but hadn't checked it out yet, and my older daughter told me she had already read it and put it on her list of favorites. "Hmm..." I thought to myself, "a book that appeals both to my reluctant reader 8 year old and my voracious reading 10 year old... that really is something special." 

Not only that, but check out the reviews on Amazon! I mean Holy Cow! With 1,134 reviews, the book has a score of 4.8/5 stars. The rating is only slightly lower on GoodReads, with a 4.20/5 stars, but 107,754 ratings so far. The book has loads of appeal. I'm going to try to pinpoint some of the reasons why. 

First of all, I think graphic novels have an appeal to both enthusiastic and struggling readers. They can be more friendly to some disabilities than titles with lots of dense text.

There is also the appeal of the coming-of-age story. Like I said before, I felt that this particular coming-of-age story was quite shallow, but clearly I am in the minority.

I do think that Raina's injury and subsequent surgeries and treatments have the ability to draw the reader in due to pity, a smidge of voyeurism, and relief in not being alone in a) feeling weird, b) having medical concerns, or c) being bullied. This plot device was not particularly effective for me considering my own personal life story, but I can see where it might be for people who haven't experienced some of the things that I have. 

It is frustrating to watch Raina continue to hang with her "mean girl" friends. That was one of my least favorite aspects of the book. I wanted her to tell those girls to kiss off much sooner, but at least it was satisfying when she finally did. 

Smile isn't a deep read, in my opinion, but it's quick, light and easy to follow. Most readers love it, and it definitely deserves a place on any library's shelves that is frequented by the targeted age group! 

I'll share two of my favorite moments below. In the first excerpt, Raina is talking to her mother about how she wishes more kids would be open about the stuff that makes them feel like outcasts. In the second excerpt, Raina describes how once she started doing things she cared about and that made her feel good, she found better friends and liked herself more. These are really the best takeaways from this book. 

Did you read Smile? What did you think? 

Non-fiction for youth review: Hark! A Shark!

Hark! A Shark! All About Sharks from the Cat in the Hat's Learning Library

by Bonnie Worth

Illustrated by Aristedes Ruiz and Joe Mathieu

• Age Range: 5 - 8 years
• Grade Level: Kindergarten - 3
• Lexile Measure: NC760L 
• Series: Cat in the Hat's Learning Library
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (January 8, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375870733
• ISBN-13: 978-0375870736

I love a good non-fiction picture book! This title has a lot going for it. It is well researched by professionals. This photo of the front matter shows that experts in both marine life and literacy were consulted in the writing of this book. Children can absolutely have informative AND entertaining books at their disposal. 

I love that the both the science and the reader are shown respect by presenting the subject matter with the most possible accuracy.

Another thing I feel is essential to good children's non-fiction is a glossary and resources for learning more about the topic at hand. This book contains both of those elements, as well as an index. 

Regardless of how "good" a title is according to adults, however, the true test is in whether children will read it or accept it as a read-a-loud. This book, with over 4 stars on amazon, fulfills both of those requirements! Hark a Shark! is written in the rhyming style of Dr. Seuss, using the characters from the popular Cat in the Hat reboot that is aired on PBS. The illustrations are whimsical and aid in the presentation of the information. The language used is fun but accurate. In this example, you can see the characters learning about skin grafts using shark skin.

The book holds my kids' attention pretty well. I do think that dividing the book into some sort of section would have been beneficial to the presentation of the information. The cool thing about this book is that it's a great read-a-loud title because it follows the fun structure of Dr. Seuss, but it's also a fantastic choice for independent reading. I'm a big fan of this book, and I will also be looking for more of the Learning Library's titles. We own Would you Rather be a Pollywog? at our house and that has also been popular with my kids.