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 3
Chapter 3 Summary
Raina finishes sixth grade on a dour note: While trading yearbook signatures, she receives one from Nicole stating, “Have a nice summer, Vampire-Girl!” (53). In addition to Girl Scout camp and vacation trips, Raina continues her dental visits and receives the dreaded wrap-around headgear. Zits appear on her face just in time for the first day of seventh grade, but her worries dry up when she develops a crush on Sammy, a sixth grader and fellow flute player in band class who also has braces.
In October, an earthquake rips through Raina’s neighborhood. She, her mother, and Amara take safe positions, but Will does not know what is going on and continues to stand by rattling bookshelves. Huddled under the table together, Raina notices that Amara is willingly hugging her and praying for the first time, and the bolts on the bookshelves prevent them from falling on Will. While the power goes out, and the family learns that a portion of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge has collapsed, the family suffers no serious injuries or property damage, and her father comes home safely.
Raina appreciates the calm, lightless night in the aftermath but rejoices when the power comes back a few hours later. School reopens only a day later, and she daydreams of Sammy rescuing her from a quake. He asks her if she is busy after school, which Raina takes as asking her out. Unfortunately, her treatments continue without delay. Raina’s mom tells her that she is living a strange year, and Raina half-heartedly says that losing two teeth is not the worst thing in the world.
Chapter 3 Analysis
Summer vacations force a lull in the midst of the school drama that the story centers on, so Telgemeier uses page-long montages to summarize her activities. They show that even as she undergoes painful treatments, she continues to participate in the Girl Scouts as a counselor as well as play videogames and go on family vacations like a normal girl. Seventh grade marks a dramatic change in the girls’ mentality as they experience growth spurts and now tower over the new sixth-grade class.
Raina’s dental issues are not the focus of this chapter, but they still affect her self-esteem. Nicole is the first of the girls to directly mock Raina’s teeth with the line she writes in Rain’s yearbook. Raina spends four panels fiddling with new headgear and feels like a nerd even if she only wears it overnight. When she struggles with playing the flute, she thinks, “Now my hands hurt as much as my teeth!” (63). However, the braces influence Raina’s crush on Sammy as they are going through a similar situation.
The Loma Prieta Earthquake that Raina’s family lived through occurred on October 17, 1989. In addition to the collapse of the Bay Bridge, the 6.9-magnitude tremor resulted in 67 deaths and $5 billion in property damage as well as a delay in a highly anticipated Major League Baseball World Series game between local rivals the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics (“San Francisco Earthquake of 1989.” History, Updated 11 September 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/1989-san-francisco-earthquake). To depict the sensation of an earthquake, Telgemeier uses a giant “HEAVE” before changing the panel borders from flat to jagged and lining the page bottoms with rattling sound effects.
The actual event only takes two pages, but the aftermath lasts much longer. The pattern is familiar to those who have lived through natural disasters as the family hears rumors from neighbors, listens to a battery-powered radio, sleeps downstairs in case of aftershocks, and celebrates the return of electricity. For Raina, this experience results in both appreciation for a silent night in a usually bright and noisy city as well as the discomfort of finishing her homework by candlelight. The family is fortunate to avoid major damage, so the protagonist finds it hard to compare this serious event with the painful personal issues she faces.
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By Raina Telgemeier
