74 pages • 2 hours read
Raina TelgemeierSmile: A Graphic Novel
Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | Middle Grade | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapter 1
Chapter 1 Summary
Sixth-grade student Raina Telgemeier visits Dr. Dragoni’s orthodontist office in San Francisco with her mother and younger siblings, Amara and Will. After giving an awkward smile for a medical photo and meeting with the doctor, Raina learns that she needs braces to fix an overbite, with Amara teasing, “You’re gonna be a METAL-MOUTH!!” (2). Raina is upset until she receives some advice during her Girl Scout troop meeting, which includes Melissa, Emily, Karin, Nicole, Jenny, Kaylah, and Kelli. Jenny, who already wears braces, tells her that they are not so bad if she avoids a long list of foods.
That night, Raina goes home with Kelli and Melissa. Melissa eggs the others to race her to Raina’s house, but Raina trips and falls on her face after trying to grab Kelli. Raina soon realizes that she is missing her two front teeth. One falls on the ground, and the other wedges into the top of her mouth. Raina’s father cares for her while her mother calls another dentist, Dr. Golden, to perform emergency surgery to put the teeth back in and place a plaster seal.
Raina runs through a range of emotions. At first, she finds the missing teeth funny—“I look like I’m six again!” (12)—but her amusement fades as her codeine medicine and diet of broth and ice cream make her feel queasy. She tires of staying home watching Amara play Super Mario Bros. and is grumpy when her class sends her a get-well card with “SMILE” on the front. When she returns to Aptos Middle School, her teacher, friends, and classmates ask intrusive questions about her teeth, and one boy tries to reach into her mouth.
When Dr. Golden removes the seal, he finds that the teeth set higher into the top row than they should be, and more procedures are necessary to fix the issue and address nerve damage to the surrounding area. Raina’s mother buys her a videogame after learning about the setback. Amara continues to tease her sister but complains to her mom when Raina chooses the fantasy game Wizards & Warriors over Ducktales or California Games and hogs the console afterward. Her mother nervously tells Amara to let Raina be: She will face even more pain going forward and will need all the help she can get.
Chapter 1 Analysis
Smile uses establishing shots and context clues to show that it takes place in a San Francisco suburb: first a double-page landscape of the city from the Sutro Tower and then another double-page spread of the family’s blue sedan on the freeway just outside the city. Raina’s friends and classmates also reflect the city’s diverse population. Telgemeier never states that the story begins in 1989, but the Ducktales game that Amara mentions was released the same year. Aside from pop culture references like this, the story minimizes references to time so that younger readers can apply their own experiences to it.
The opening pages display Raina’s trepidation about the orthodontist. She is the last of her family to enter the office, with shoulders slumped. She gives a grimace when the assistant asks her to smile for a photo and questions why she needs braces when, “My teeth look ok to me” (2). Smile uses a limited third-person perspective that focuses on Raina’s direct experiences. For example, Dr. Golden’s explanation to Raina’s mom about future operations happens in the background with missing phrases, while the artwork centers on Raina showing her teeth to an amused Amara.
The accident takes place over eight pages. Telgemeier slows down the pacing to show Raina reaching toward Kelli, grabbing her hoodie, and tripping over five panels. The author uses a giant “WHAM!” to describe the moment of impact since the impact rocks her senses. The slowed pacing continues as Raina initially feels alright, notices the pool of blood near her, feels her mouth, and screams when she realizes her teeth are missing. The scene ends with a full-page panel of Raina’s mother glancing at her phone book and making a dentist call that would define the coming years of her daughter’s life.
Amara is Raina’s initial source of harassment about her teeth from the moment she learns that Raina needs braces, but Amara is young and would find any excuse to badger her older sister. The main conflict of how Raina’s dental issues damage her self-esteem begins when she returns to school, as classmates whisper about her getting into a fight and a teacher asks her what happened in front of the whole class. Chapter 1 also shows the first crack between Raina and her friends: They first ask her rapid questions that she doesn’t want to talk about; when a remorseful Kelli comes over, they try to get answers out of her.
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