A Smile Like Yours

Gr 9 Up–Rhys can’t explain why ­Malcolm is important to him, at least not without admitting his own disability. Rhys has ­prosopagnosia, or face blindness, and it is very hard for him to recognize people that he’s seen before. Even with friends and family members, Rhys must look for visual cues like hairstyles and jewelry to help him remember who they are. But Malcolm’s smile is so distinctive and unforgettable that Rhys can always identify him right away. That smile is just one of the reasons that Rhys starts to fall in love with Malcolm, but there’s more than one obstacle to the possibility of a romance between them. This story about university freshman blends challenges faced by all students, such as making friends and keeping up with classwork, with topics like understanding sexual identity and living with a disability that nobody else can see. The artwork is key to helping readers understand Rhys’s disability through his eyes. There are many ­wordless panels of Rhys focusing on someone’s individual attributes, such as hair or jewelry, followed with clearer and more colorful panels, signifying that he has identified the person. Rhys is white, and Malcolm is Black. ­