Sunday, October 29, 2017

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? 





3 comments:

  1. I liked that you were honest in your review about Smile. You said right off that you didn’t like it , but you tempered that by acknowledging that the book wasn’t written for you. And THEN you shared your daughters’ (positive) experiences. All of that made your review so much more compelling.

    I have been trying to read more graphic novels as a result of my LIS classes, but I still can’t call myself a fan. However, I was talking to a teen librarian the other day about graphic novels. She has the same problem I do, she’s TRYING to like them, but then something she said really stuck with me….sort of a ‘light bulb’ moment, if you will. She said that her mistake with graphic novels is that she reads them TOO FAST. There is so little text that she tends to fly through them when most of the story within this format is in the illustrations. I mean…duh, I know that, too…but hearing someone else say it made an impact.

    So. I’ll try and pick up Smile the next time I visit the library. I’ve not read anything by Telgemeier, but I need to give her a chance. And I’ll make myself slow down and really look at the pictures!

    You mentioned the Amazon and Goodreads reviews. I found this article on School Library Journal about readalikes for Smile. You might want to take a look at it, too.
    Thanks for sharing!

    http://blogs.slj.com/goodcomicsforkids/2014/12/01/what-to-read-next-raina-telgemeier/

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    1. Thanks so much for your feedback! I think you're onto something with the speed at which we tend to read graphic novels. The next time I pick one up I will remember to slow down and savor the illustrations along with the text. They may never be my favorite, but maybe I can learn to appreciate them more.

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