Smile

Product Information

Bird, Elizabeth (May 14, 2010). "Blood, Sweat and Teeth". The New York Times . Retrieved February 12, 2013. What happens when your life craters, but you have three small children to care for, a husband who loves you, a profession you are committed to? How do you overlay all this with something like Bell's that literally changes the way you see yourself, and others see you? What happens when you can't even smile at your beautiful babies.

Wildsmith, Snow (December 30, 2009). "Review: Smile". School Library Journal "it has a shark in it" blog . Retrieved February 15, 2013. Editors' Choice: Recent Books of Particular Interest". The New York Times. May 23, 2010 . Retrieved February 15, 2013. Sarah Ruhl was making a name for herself as a playwright and author...married, with one child, she seemed to have it all. What was wonderful about this book is that she talks about different understandings that arose for her and then she goes off and writes a play or an essay about it. She was very open about her experiences and feelings during this time of her life. We all tend to focus on healing and getting well - but is that really what will bring us wellbeing in life? How do we reconcile disabilities, especially facial disabilities? Or respond to people who have them.? Or how do we respond to people who have face tics or unusual ways of acting that seem odd?I loved the haikus at the end, and all the different ways the author approached solutions. Brilliant! And then how she approached acceptance and learning to live with her life, her face as it is, not waiting for one test of perfection to happen before she moves on. . . life just keeps going one foot in front of the other, one smile after another. Young Reader's Choice Award Three Division Winners 2011-2021.” Pacific Northwest Library Association, 28 Mar. 2022, pnla.org/young-readers-choice-award/past-yrca-winners/yrca-three-division-winners-2011-2020/. While the story opened my eyes to how differently people are perceived just because of an asymmetrical face, and while I felt a lot of empathy for the author and her experience, I think I expected a deeper, more introspective look at the experience. And while there were parts of the book that focused on that, a lot of it was more focused on random stories from the author's life as well as her plan of treatment and the experiences with different doctors.

Beautifully-written memoir that really captures what it's like to have a chronic medical condition (in which ones "wins" are slowly measured out in the course of years instead of weeks or days.) I really appreciated the use of photography to outline examples in the book. These goals have been developed alongside the introduction of SMILE books, based on our SMILE five-a-day culture:Clabaugh, Rich (December 3, 2010). "4 Great Graphic Novels for Family Entertainment". The Christian Science Monitor . Retrieved February 12, 2013. But as I know or have met some of the family members in her work, I was of course pleased to (as we do at the holidays!) “Catch up” with the news about her and them. A kind of perfect book for Thanksgiving, as probably the main point of the book is how grateful she is to have supportive family and friends. Beautifully written, top notch. Following our NACE Challenge Award reaccreditation in July 2021, it was recognised that the use of SMILE books had a positive impact on pupil voice and the promotion of independent learning for all. Our assessor reported:

The SMILE approach to learning has created a climate of trust where learners are confident to take risks without the fear of failure and are valued for their efforts. Pupils appreciate that valuable learning often results from making mistakes. I've seen and enjoyed several of Sarah Ruhl's plays, so I was excited to read her new memoir and learn more about her as a writer and a person. Smile is about Ruhl's birth of twins and subsequent onset of Bell's palsy, a condition where the face is partially paralyzed. My years of writing plays tells me that a story requires an apotheosis, a sudden transformation. But my story has been so slow, so incremental, the nature of the chronic, which resists plot and epiphany... What kind of story is that?" Books about coping with disability or disease or some kind of difference are now commonplace, but this book is unique in Ruhl’s coping with the disconnect between inner feelings and the outer expression of those emotions. What is a smile? And why does it seem so important for women to be smiling all the time? Why do we feel shame when we see ourselves as something less than physically attractive? I was reminded while reading it of Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealey. Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award: Awards List.” FictionDB, 1 Feb. 2013, www.fictiondb.com/awards/2013~rebecca-caudill-young-readers-book-award~222.htm.

What is a “SMILE Curriculum”?

As a Pioneer School we collaborated with colleagues who were at the same point of their curriculum journey as us. Following this collaboration, we agreed to trial the introduction of our SMILE books in Y2 and Y6 with staff who were members of SLT and involved in curriculum reform. In all honesty it was a hard book to read at times. Hard to Face your face and the ways Bell’s palsy or a facial injury has impacted your life. The pain that comes when people turn away from you because we see people as their face. And with bells palsey and facial injuries there is lots of that. Often people don’t know they do so. There is a shaming there.