Smile
By Raina Telgemeier

Raina isn't happy about getting braces. Her sister calls her a metal-mouth and continues name-calling. Luckily, Raina has a nice orthodontist, Dr. Dragoni.

Later that evening, Raina goes to her Girl Scout meeting. Her friend, Jenny, reminds her of everything she can't eat with braces. Raina is excited, thinking that she might be able to stop biting her nails.

On her way back to her apartment, she, Kelli, and Melissa, two other girls from her troop, race to Raina's house. After trying to grab Kelli's hood, she trips and falls, knocking out her front teeth.

As her das rushes her home, her mother stays with Kelli, Melissa, and Kelli's mom looking for the tooth.

Raina is rushed to the dentist, where he places her teeth back in place and puts a cast-like support on her teeth.

The next day, a bored Raina, who will be staying home from school, watches her sister, Amara, play Nintendo. Amara refuses to give up her game.

When Raina returns to school, she is bombarded with questions. She tells everyone that she tripped and fell, leaving out the details.

Raina returns to Dr. Golden's office and notices something is wrong: Raina's teeth have moved up due to the bone holding them in place being broken. She is upset that she looks like a vampire, so her mother takes her, Amara, and younger brother, Will to ToysRUs. Raina gets a Nintendo game that Amara doesn't like. Raina also won't let her play the game.

When Amara complains to her mom, she tells Amara that Raina's teeth hurt, and if playing Nintendo nonstop keeps her mind off her teeth, she should be allowed to play.

Raina then has to go to an endodontist, a dentist that puts root canals in. He tells her what will happen, which Raina tunes out. The endodontist gives Raina headphones, and she doesn't pay attention to the procedure until he accidently places the red-hot tool on the top of her mouth, which she smells.

A little before her twelveth birthday, the Telgemier family goes out for pizza. Raina wishes to get her ears pierced, and after some convincing, her mom agrees.

When Raina returns to the orthdontist, he tells her that she needs headgear. Raina is freaked out, thinking she'll look like a nerd, and Dr. Dragoni assures her that she'll only need to wear it at night.

Raina then has to go through a "mouth molding", where a play-doh like putty is pressed onto the teeth. Raina almost barfs.

At her twelveth birthday party, most of her friends give her earrings. Melissa comments that she's lucky to get her ears pierced, so she'll look normal soon,

Raina soon gets braces, and they hurt her teeth. Her father jokingly tells her to bang her head n a wall so it will hurt less, much to her annoyance.

Her dad offers to take her and Will to a movie where Will requests popcorn. Since Raina can't eat popcorn, her father tells him he can't eat any. She lets him buy some, since she isn't into popcorn. Raina soon realizes that popcorn now smells amazing, since she can't eat any.

The next week, Raina gets her ears pierced. She comments that she feels like a real teenager, and her mother sighs, sadly.

The next day, Raina visits hervold friend, Jane. She admits to herself that she likes Jane mainly because she's less mature than herself.

Raina wants to scope out boys at the mall, but Jane would rather play Nintendo with her brother. Raina is disappointed.

That night, Raina tells Jane that she wishes boys would like her. Jane tells her boys do like her, but Raina disagrees, saying that they aren't cute boys and Jane rolls her eyes at Raina.

On the last day of school, Raina asks Nicole to sign her yearbook. When she reads Nicole's signature, she is upset when it reads:

HAVE A NICE SUMMER, VAMPIRE-GIRL!

with a vampire drawing. 

That summer, Raina does many things, including getting headgear. Will and Amara tease her, and her mom assures her many people have problems, they just don't talk about it. Raina the, realizes that she has acne.

When school starts again, Raina joins band and meets a sixth-grader named Sammy. She likes him and he likes her back. He is wowed by the fact that ahe is in seventh grade.

That evening, Raina practices her flute until her he fingers hurt and she is gasping for breath.

That October, as Raina does her homework, a massive earthquake shakes the San Fransisco. As Raina and Amara hide under a table, their mom calls for Will, who is biking around the house. He doesn't understand and just stands there.

When the earthquake ends, Raina and her mother rush to Will. Raina's mom tells Will he's lucky the bookshelves were bolted to the wall, or they could have fallen on him.

All of the apartment complex gossip about the hurricane. One of them tells the Telgemiers that the Bay Brige collapsed, and their father may not be able to come home.

Two hours later, their father comes home. While many people could be dead, injured, or homeless, their father is just disappointed that the World Series were postponed, due to the earthquake.

Around 8:30 that night, the power comes back on. The family turns on the news and sees that only part of the bridge colapsed, not the whole thing.

The next morning, Raina finds out that school was cancelled. All they can do, though, is stay inside and watch news reports.

Back at school, the teachers let the kids have multiple free periods. Sammy and Raina are glad the other is okay. Raina dreams of Sammy carrying her out of the crumbling building when Sammy says he's glad that the earthquake didn't happen at school.

After another ortho appointment, Raina recaps her year, knocking out her teeth, getting braces, peircing her ears, and surviving an earthquake. She decides out of everything that happened, losing teeth isn't really bad, but is still upset about it.

At lunch a few weeks later, all of her friends tell eachother that she likes Sammy. He overhears them and is overjoyed.

Right before Thanksgiving break, Dr. Dragoni realizes that her teeth aren't responding to the orthodonic treatments. He suggsest taking out her front teeth and using her other teeth as "front" ones. Raina begins to cry.

Later, Raina goes with her sister and her sisters friend to see Disney's, "The Little Mermaid". She falls in love with the movie and tells Melissa that she wants to be an animator, but secretly, she wants to be a mermaid.

In art class, Emily, one of her other friends, and Raina are talking about the movie, when a cute boy named Sean overhears them. Raina falls in love with him.

Raina soon gets her braces off before her tooth extraction, and is angry when another dentist points out that her teeth aren't perfect. 

Raina is subdued over break, knowing her extraction is coming. She can't enjoy anything, not even the peanut brittle she can finally eat without her braces on.

When Raina's extraction day comes, she has a flashback of when she was six. As she jumps in a bouncy-house, one of her teeth fall out. Everyone looks, but the tooth is no where to be seen.

Raina is upset that the Tooth Fairy won't be able to bring her money, since she doesn't have a tooth. Her father makes a paper tooth, but "ruins it" when he writes her name on it.

The next morning, Raina finds a dollar and a card. Even though it is signed, "Tooth Fairy", Raina comments how the handwriting looks like her fathers.

When the extraction is over, Raina, who is very tired, falls asleep, wishing for her teeth.

A few weeks later, Raina's new retainer comes in. She loves it and thinks it makes her look cool and normal.

Raina soon finds out that it's hard to eat with a retainer. She gets food stuck on top of it, and she has to wash it in private so people don't see her taking her "teeth" out.

At a Girl Scout meeting, Raina shows the other girls her retainer. She pops it out, which freaks them all out. They all compare retainers, and Raina feels left out since her retainer is just plain pink.

Raina feels better about herself without the braces. She feels that people are paying attention to her more, and often smiles at Sean.

Raina admits to Melissa that she doesn't like Sammy anymore since she likes Sean. Melissa advises her to ask Sean out to an upcoming Valentines Day Dance. Raina tells her that she wants him to ask her out, not thr other way around.

Sammy tells Raina that he'll meet her at the dance, but Raina decides not to go. The next day, Sammy presents her with a present, a box of chocolates. Raina blows him off when he offers it to her, upsetting him. He ner talks to her again.

Raina is upset when Dr. Dragoni tells her that her braces are going back on. Raina tells Melissa that she thought she looked cool, but Melissa and her other friends disagree. When she storms off in anger, they call her a baby.

When Raina gets her braces back on, she says it hurts to smile. She smashes her face into pillows, trying to make the pain stop.

Raina daydrams about her and Sean in class. As they kiss, her teeth and braces fall out, disgusting Sean.

Every two weeks, Raina has to get her braces tightened. She hates this and it hurts her mouth.

On her thirteeth birthday, her friends do a "makeover" telling her what Sean likes. Raina ends up wearing a randomized outfit. She believes her friends advice until they all start laughing and admit that it was a prank.

In eigth grade, Raina realizes that all her friends want to talk about is fashion, so she hangs around boys more often. To get closer to Sean, she tries out for basket-ball, but doesn't make the team.

Juan, a boy from Raina's grade, invites them all to an end-of-school party. There, he suggests to play Spin the Bottle. After Raina watches to others reactions, she passes her turn.

Dr. Dragoni sends Raina to a periodontist. There, they try to clean her gums, but instead make them bloody and bruised. Raina's mother isn't happy with them and yells at the dentist before storming,out of the office.

At Raina's eighth grade graduation, Melissa accidently points out that Raina wasn't invited to a special party. Raina then doesn't feel like hanging out with her friends.

Over the summer, Raina is a camp counseler, volunteers to sit between Will and Amara on a road trip, and gets the teeth on her retainer out. Her teeth are bonded together and the retainer is ditched.

On the first day of high school, Raina is ready to make a new start, when she sees her old friends. They talk about their summers they all spent togther, without Raina.

One day, while Raina is getting a pencil, all of her teeth accesories fall out of her bag. Karin, another friend, comments that she is covering up dog breath. Angry, Raina leaves to get a snack, which her friends question about dog bones.

While Raina is buying her snack from a vending machine, Karin and Nicole pants her. Crying, Raina rushes to the bathroom to hide.

Emily and Kahla, another friend, find her and tell her that Karin and Nicole were only goofing around. Raina is humiliated and leaves the bathroom to find Karin and Nicole. She yells at them and "breaks up" with them.

Raina meets a new girl named Theresa, who invites her to sit with Theresa and her friends at lunch. Raina goes with her, and meets her boy friends(not boyfriend).

Soon into her sophmore year, Raina gets her braces off. She thinks they look weird, but Theresa assures her that they look fine and thinks she's pranking her.

Dr. Golden, bonds Raina's teeth and sends her off to an adult dentist, he is a childs dentist and kept Raina until the tooth fiasco was over.

That night, Raina goes with her friends to a school dance. They see a photo booth, and Raina can comfortably "smile".

Queen's Qualities

• If a giant earthquake (6.9 magnitude)came along, wouldn't a fish bowl be knocked off a shelf?
• I can't belive it took Raina until high school to realize that her friends weren't real friends. I would've dumped them a LONG time ago.
• Raina's retainer came in fast. I had a retainer, and it took a few weeks to be made.
• I went through that tooth-mold thing, too. I don't reccommend it if you don't need it.
• When I reread the book, I realized that the leswan was that beauty is on the inside and that true friends don't bully you. When I first read the book, I thought the lesson was "don't run on pavement"! 
• BTW: This book is based on the author, Raina Telgemier's, real experiences.
• Soon, I will recap "Sisters" which is a sister novel(get it?) to Smile. It isn't exactly a sequel, just a closer look on one of those "road trips".

A Million Ways Home

This book is pretty high up on my favorite book list. I love it! 

A MILLION WAYS HOME

By Dianna Dorisi Winget

The book starts out as Priscilla "Poppy" Parker meets Erin, a young girl who cries all the time at a childrens' care center. While trying to comfort Erin, Poppy realises that her roomate, Sidney, has stolen her phone. Then, Miss Austin, the caretaker, tells Poppy her grandmother, Beth, has been released from the hospital and was transferred to the Huckleberry home. Miss Austin promises to take Poppy the next afternoon, but Poppy can't wait that long and leaves on her own. 

Poppy stops at a gas station, and talks to the cashier, who pays for her candy bar. When Poppy leaves, though, she hears... A gunshot. She runs and hides, but instead is stopped by the crimanal, who had shot and killed the cashier. He asks her name, and when she tells him, police cars approach and he runs off.

Poppy is stopped yet again by the police, and she tells them that the criminal left. While a policeman and his dog, Dozer leave to track him down, Trey Brannigan, a detective, stays with Poppy and asks her questions. She talks to him about the criminal, her grandmother, art, and what exactly the criminal did. 

Miss Austin arrives and scolds Poppy for leaving. She and Trey talk, and Trey tells Poppy that she needs to go to a questioning at the station.

On the way to the station, Trey, Poppy, Maria, a young woman, and Ray, an aging man, stop at McDonalds and order Poppy a cheeseburger Happy Meal. She eats it quickly, then realizing how hungry she was.

At the station, the captian, Pete Ross, listens to Poppy's story and records everything. When he and Trey leave, Maria and Poppy talk and drink hot chocolate, and Poppy overhears Trey and Pete fighting about her. Maria assures her that she hasn't done anything wrong, they are deciding where she will stay, since she told the suspect her name.

Trey tells her that she will spend the night at the station, then go to his mother, Marti's, house until the criminal is caught.

The next day, Poppy is forced to tell her grandmother about the crime. Beth is mad that Poppy snuck off without Miss Austin and almost got herself killed. Trey asks Beth if it's okay if Poppy stays with Marti and Beth agrees.

At Marti's house, Poppy meets a plethora of animals, including Pringles, a moody African Gray parrot that will bite off fingers.

She also meets Lizzie, a young girl who has been in trouble. Lizzie explains why she's there, she spray painted "Pete for President" on the federal building. She and her friends are punished with 300 hours of community service.

Marti and Poppy talk about her parents, and Poppy tells her that her parents were killed in an anti-government bomb. They, and ten other people, were killed when Poppy was one.

That night, Trey returns Poppy's "lost" cell phone. While Poppy wants to know the details, Trey only tells her that he and Sidney had a "friendly chat".

Trey and Poppy play checkers and eat Twinkies at hia house, a duplex that connects to Marti's. They talk about Trey's father, and how he never let Trey win checkers. His proudest moment was when Trey beat his father on his thirteenth birthday.

While Poppy is leaving, she tells Trey that she is going to bike over to the Huckleberry Home to see Beth's physical therapy. Trey refuses to let her go.

The next day, Poppy wakes up early and leaves to her house to get her bike. She goes to the physical therapy, but is dissapointed to see that Beth is asleep, not at her therapy. Marti calls, and Trey picks Poppy up. Dissapointed at her stupidness, Trey takes her bike away.

Poppy meets the police artist, and they talk as she draws the suspect Poppy describes. The drawing is very realistic, and Poppy is scared of it.

Marti takes Poppy to the animal shelter where Lizzie does her community service. She and Lizzie walk the dogs, Lizzie lazily puts them in the yard. Poppy plays with the dogs while Lizzie texts.

Poppy then meets Gunner, a young German Shephard with an "uncertain future". Carol, Lizzie's mother and the director, stops her, saying Gunner has biten people and is not trustworthy.

Later, Lizzie and Poppy talk about what Poppy saw at the gas station, until Marti makes her do homework. Poppy and Lizzie continue to text.

Trey arrives and tells Poppy that the poster of the suspect has alerted a shop owner, and the man's name is William Eugene Frank.

Poppy is sent to look over the stores cameras. She sees William but knows that if she tells the police what she saw, it will be easier for them to catch him and she will be sent back to the center.

Beth has a stroke and is sent back to the hospital. Upset, Poppy tries to see her, but she is sleeping. She goes to the shelter and talks to Lizzie about Lizzie's step-family.

When she returns to Beth, she is awake and wants coffee. After Poppy gets her some, Beth tells Poppy that they have to give up their home.

Lizzie urgently texts Poppy, saying that Gunner needs her. Poppy gets Trey to rush her to the shelter, and sees a vet van in the parking lot.

Poppy climbs inside Gunners' kennel, and soon realises that Gunner is about to be put down. Upset, she refuses to get out of the kennel until Carol agrees not to put him to sleep.

The next day, as Lizzie and Poppy are with the dogs, Greg Kinsley, a K9 officer and Dozers' handler, arrives, looking for dogs for the program. Poppy suggestes Gunner and offers to train him for a test.

As Poppy trains Gunner, Carol makes Lizzie keep an eye on her so Gunner doesn't attack anyone. Lizzie uses Poppy's phone and talks about how her father used to take her for walks in Manito Park. Poppy tells Lizzie about how her parents were killed and Lizzie is shocked.

Unable to get Gunner to listen to her, Lizzie suggests treats, which makes Gunner obey.

Later that night, Poppy admits that she saw William on the cameras. Trey is angry,  but he forgives her.

The next morning, as Poppy and Lizzie are training Gunner, Marti arrives with sad news, Beth has died. Poppy refuses to see Beth, and doesn't leave her room at Marti's. Trey finally gets her up and tells her about the funeral, which Poppy doesn't want to go to.

At the service, Poppy runs off to Manito Park, where she falls asleep for hours. Lizzie finds her and they talk about what they did at Manito Park in between bites of popcorn.

Lizzie calls her mom, and Poppy sees no other than William Eugene Frank. She and Lizzie hide in a culvert and call 911. The operator gets Trey, who comes to the park.

When William hears sirens, he forces a woman out of her car and tries to escape when the police show up. William is arrested.

Poppy is sent back to the center, where she sees Erin and her mother leave.

Poppy returns to her room and takes a pillow from Sidney's bed. Sidney grabs it back, threatening to break Poppy's face.

Poppy skips school and goes into a small, concrete hideaway and texts Lizzie and draws Gunner. Trey catches her and tells her that if she doesn't go to school, he won't allow her to go to the animal shelter.

Officer Kinsley arrives at the shelter and passes Gunner. Poppy is happy until she realises that since Gunner was accepted, he won't be at the shelter anymore.

The next day, Miss Austin takes Poppy a meeting about Beth's will. Beth left all of her valuables to Poppy and 16 thousand dollars for Poppy's trust fund.

Beth left a note for Poppy, which says how proud she is of Poppy. It also says that Trey will be adopting her.

That night, Poppy asks Trey if they can sit out under the stars and he agrees. They sit and Trey tells Poppy about Virgina Sykes, a little girl who loved her hamster, Ralph. Her step-brother baby-sat her often, and one night, he sprained her wrist because she wouldn't listen to him. Trey wants to arrest him, but the mother begs him not to, and Trey gives him a chance. Then, one night, the brother had a party and Virgina was killed. The department thought that she threatend to tell, and someone killed her. No one was convicted since nothing could be figured out.

The next day, as Poppy and Lizzie pick up dog poop from the backyard, Lizzie tells Poppy that she wants to adopt Garfield, a young kitten.  She wants to take him when she visits her dad over the weekend.

Marti offers to take the girls out for ice cream, and on the way, Poppy wants to stop at the cemetary. Lizzie tells her to hurry, or she'll leave without her.

Poppy apologizes to Beth for not coming to her funeral. She thinks about all of the good times the two had together.

When she gets back to the car, Lizzie proclaims that vanilla is for losers, and chocolate is for smart and cool people. She belives Poppy will get vanilla, but Poppy decides on two flavors, butter pecan for Beth and Moose Tracks for her.

Because that was her favorite.

Queen's Qualities

• Are dogs really that quickly accepted into programs? I always thought a team would evaluate the dog.
• Butter peacan+Moose Tracks= Ew?
• I can't believe Miss Austin didn't do anything about Sidney bulling Poppy. That seems like a normal thing that happens in care centers and foster homes and she should be more aware.
• Miss Austin is pretty laxidazical about one of her kids going missing and almost getting killed. Is she even registered?
• If you're interested, there was exactly 16,342 dollars put in Poppy's trust fund.

I loved this book and I hope you will/did too! If you have any reccomendations, post them in the comments down below.

Queen's Book Bag

Hi, everyone! Welcome to my new blog! Here, I will write reviews and summaries on my favorite books! Enjoy, and if you want to request a book review, do it in the comment sections.

Enjoy!