Smile by Raina Telgemeier

The painful process of acquiring braces seems an unpromising subject for a graphic novel, but this entertaining take on a familiar adolescent trauma makes light work of the dental drama.

Raina knocks her front teeth out one night and spends the next four years trying to fix her life while her dentist tries to fix her teeth. Things don’t go smoothly; friends can be mean, boys can be baffling, and the earthquakes she experiences aren’t always caused solely by emotional upheavals (she lives in San Francisco). Along the way Raina learns how to find real friends who will let her be herself.

It’s an easy but intelligent read, with some important things to say about growing up. While wearing unwieldy headgear. We’ve all been there. Well I have, anyway.