Smile

Telling a personal story with comics. Raina wasn’t the first person to do it, but with Smile she finds a way to put herself out there that really resonates with children. Her endearing art style pairs perfectly with this honest storytelling.

Thanks to Raina, comics can do more than just entertain kids, they can comfort them.

My daughter has been losing a lot of her baby teeth and her adult teeth are coming in…less than perfectly.

Raina Telgemeier’s book is not just about a kid getting braces, but a young girl grappling with anxiety and social pressures. My daughter and I latched onto this as one of the most intimate and accurate descriptions of anxiety in children.

Telgemeier treats the subject matter with humor, grace, and empathy. Reading it helped us both to better manage anxiety.

This book, a graphic-novel middle-grade memoir based on Telgemeier’s life, is hilarious and awkward and sad, just like much of middle-school life. In the book, Raina has a terrible accident, needs braces and headgear, and has all the typical sibling arguments. What’s great about it is that it lets you tackle all these awkward feelings with your child by reading together…in a way that’s more comfortable than it otherwise might be if your child had to start with their feelings. Even if your child is younger, you can do this as a read-aloud…or get two copies and read together.