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carriebrunalli's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
mcsayegh's review against another edition
5.0
Such an amazing book, I cannot recommend enough! Beautiful storytelling, exquisite writing and difficult but important insight into the author's feelings both during and after the war.
susieq17's review against another edition
This is an excellent account of the Rwandan war by a survivor-a girl who escaped when she was 6 years old. The descriptions of her time in refugee camps is devastating. And her adjustment to life in America is also difficult. Well-written and important.
cook_memorial_public_library's review against another edition
4.0
A 2018 staff favorite recommended by Trish. Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sgirl%20who%20smiled%20beads__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold
jkmarsh99's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to this one on audiobook. A memoir that sheds light on the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The author was a young child at the time, but was able to escape the killings with her older sister. It follows them as they live in refugee camps, several countries and ultimately the United States. A very powerful read.
hannekedom's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting book. I have learned a lot! So I think it's a very important book that everyone should read.
However, as a piece of literature, I think it ws not very catchy etc. But that doesn't matter.
However, as a piece of literature, I think it ws not very catchy etc. But that doesn't matter.
mydystopianfuture's review against another edition
5.0
“I did not understand the point of the word genocide . . . The word is tidy and efficient. It holds no true emotion. It is impersonal when it needs to be intimate, cold and sterile when it needs to be gruesome. The word is hollow, true but disingenuous, a performance, the worst kind of lie” (Wamariya 93).
We know the word. We have heard the stories. Maybe we have even visited memorials, but Wamariya’s story reveals the real wound beneath the bandaid, the unvarnished reality of a child’s life torn apart by heinous atrocities. To borrow a word from Glennon Melton, this book is brutiul—full of the beauty and brutality of a life most of us can only imagine. Must read. Must witness. Must acknowledge. Must know.
We know the word. We have heard the stories. Maybe we have even visited memorials, but Wamariya’s story reveals the real wound beneath the bandaid, the unvarnished reality of a child’s life torn apart by heinous atrocities. To borrow a word from Glennon Melton, this book is brutiul—full of the beauty and brutality of a life most of us can only imagine. Must read. Must witness. Must acknowledge. Must know.
lelex's review against another edition
5.0
"You cannot line up the atrocities like a matching set. You cannot bear witness with a single word."
"You could see the surprise in aid-workers' faces when you upended their worldview by revealing that you, a refugee, spoke five languages or had aced calculus or ran a successful accounting firm."
"The older girls in our building taught me the Zulu words for get away, don't look at me, step off."
"Toni Morrison wrote about blacks in America with the same question that defined my whole life: How do I survive? Every person I met, every paragraph I read, that's what I wanted to know: How are you surviving?"
"But sometimes it felt harder than ever. Claire and I had already had five types of lives and we'd built nothing. I shot down every conversation. I trusted nobody."
"In a way, the girl who smiled beads became the answer to all the puzzles....I thought I was the girl. I thought the beads were fire, through sometimes I thought the beads were water or time. In my version of the story, the girl walks the earth and she is always safe, there but not there, one step ahead."
"On the short flight to Los Angeles I told a coworker about my Mickey Mouse backpack. It still made me cry. His response was perfect. "Clem," he said, "we're going to do everything."
"You could see the surprise in aid-workers' faces when you upended their worldview by revealing that you, a refugee, spoke five languages or had aced calculus or ran a successful accounting firm."
"The older girls in our building taught me the Zulu words for get away, don't look at me, step off."
"Toni Morrison wrote about blacks in America with the same question that defined my whole life: How do I survive? Every person I met, every paragraph I read, that's what I wanted to know: How are you surviving?"
"But sometimes it felt harder than ever. Claire and I had already had five types of lives and we'd built nothing. I shot down every conversation. I trusted nobody."
"In a way, the girl who smiled beads became the answer to all the puzzles....I thought I was the girl. I thought the beads were fire, through sometimes I thought the beads were water or time. In my version of the story, the girl walks the earth and she is always safe, there but not there, one step ahead."
"On the short flight to Los Angeles I told a coworker about my Mickey Mouse backpack. It still made me cry. His response was perfect. "Clem," he said, "we're going to do everything."