The Smile Series in Order

About the Smile series

Series Premise

The series is autobiographical and follows Raina (the character and author) through key moments of her preteen and early teen years. Each book focuses on a different but overlapping period of her life, using the graphic novel format to blend humor, embarrassment, and honest emotion into stories about the universal struggles of adolescence. - Smile chronicles Raina’s sixth-grade year after a serious accident knocks out her two front teeth. The story follows her long, painful journey through orthodontics, surgeries, headgear, braces, and retainers while she navigates the social minefield of middle school—friend drama, crushes, changing friendships, and the constant self-consciousness of looking “different.” - Sisters flashes back to the summer before sixth grade and forward into the months after the events of Smile, focusing on Raina’s complicated relationship with her younger sister Amara. The book explores sibling rivalry, jealousy, shared family trips, and the slow realization that sisters can be both best friends and worst enemies. - Guts is a prequel that dives into Raina’s elementary-school years, focusing on her struggles with severe anxiety, stomachaches, and panic attacks around food and social situations. It reveals the origins of many of her fears and shows how she began to cope with them through therapy, understanding, and small acts of bravery. The core premise is simple but powerful: growing up is hard, embarrassing, painful, and confusing, but it is also survivable—and often funny in retrospect. Telgemeier uses her own life to normalize the awkwardness, fear, and messiness of childhood and adolescence, showing that even the most difficult moments become part of the story that makes us who we are.

Main Characters

Raina Telgemeier (the character): The protagonist and autobiographical stand-in. In *Smile* she is 11–12 years old, in *Sisters* she is 9–12, and in *Guts* she is 9–10. She is creative, anxious, self-conscious, and deeply observant. She loves drawing, reading, and her friends, but struggles with body image, social pressure, anxiety, and the fear of being “weird.”
- Amara Telgemeier: Raina’s younger sister—spirited, artistic, and frequently at odds with Raina. Their relationship is complicated: love mixed with jealousy, competition, and occasional cruelty, but ultimately strong and enduring.
- Mom and Dad: Supportive, loving parents who are sometimes overwhelmed by their daughters’ needs and their own stresses. Mom is practical and caring; Dad is gentle and patient.
- Supporting/recurring:
- Friends like Melissa, Karen, and others who reflect the shifting alliances of middle school.
- Various teachers, orthodontists, and classmates who populate Raina’s world.
- In later books, Raina’s younger brother Will and other family members.

Setting

The primary setting is San Francisco in the mid-to-late 1980s, specifically the Noe Valley neighborhood where Raina grew up. The city is depicted with affectionate realism: hilly streets, Victorian houses, cable cars, the fog rolling in, and the everyday life of a middle-class family in a vibrant urban neighborhood. Key locations include:

- The family home—a cozy, slightly cluttered house with a shared bedroom for Raina and Amara.
- School (Everett Middle School)—lockers, hallways, classrooms, and the cafeteria where social dramas unfold.
- The orthodontist’s office—a recurring site of anxiety and progress.
- San Francisco landmarks—the zoo, Golden Gate Park, the Exploratorium, the beach, and the city streets.

The time period is the 1980s, with period details that ground the story: no cell phones, Walkmans, big hair, scrunchies, acid-washed jeans, and the cultural backdrop of Reagan-era America. The setting is both specific (San Francisco’s neighborhoods and microclimates) and universal (the shared experience of middle school, sibling rivalry, dental trauma, and family life). The city is never idealized—it has fog, traffic, crowded sidewalks, and urban grit—but it is always loved.

Tone & Themes

The tone is honest, warm, self-deprecating, and gently humorous—intimate and confessional without ever being self-pitying. Telgemeier’s voice is that of an older, wiser version of her younger self looking back with compassion and a wry smile. The books are funny (cringe-worthy middle-school moments, sibling squabbles, orthodontic disasters), but the humor is never cruel or mocking—it is empathetic and inclusive. Painful moments—dental trauma, panic attacks, family tension—are treated with seriousness and respect, never minimized or played for cheap laughs. The art amplifies the tone: soft colors, expressive faces, and fluid paneling make every emotion feel immediate and authentic. There is no villainizing of other kids or adults; even frustrating characters are given understandable motivations. The overall feeling is reassuring and hopeful: the awkward, painful parts of growing up are universal, survivable, and—seen from a distance—often funny. The books are deeply comforting for readers who feel alone in their struggles, showing that embarrassment, fear, and family conflict are normal, temporary, and part of becoming a stronger person.

Raina Telgemeier’s Smile, Sister*, and Guts form a deeply honest, visually stunning trilogy of graphic memoirs that have redefined how children’s literature talks about growing up. Through Raina’s middle-school years—braces and broken teeth, sibling rivalry and road trips, anxiety and stomachaches—the books capture the universal awkwardness, fear, and small triumphs of childhood with humor, empathy, and unflinching truth. The art is expressive and intimate; the storytelling is warm, funny, and profoundly reassuring. These are not just books about surviving middle school—they are books about being seen, about knowing that even the most embarrassing, painful moments are part of a larger story that ends up okay. For millions of readers, Raina Telgemeier has become the cartoonist who understood them when no one else did. The series is a quiet masterpiece—simple on the surface, deeply powerful underneath—and it continues to help kids (and adults) feel less alone, one panel and one honest moment at a time.