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923 reviews for:
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil
4.25 AVERAGE
923 reviews for:
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After
Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil
4.25 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
I was really young when the Rwanda genocide was happening, though I learned a bit about it once I got older. This book really shines a light on what war can do to a family, a child, a relationship with yourself. Clementine tells the story of her time on the run from the crisis in Rwanda, to her time as a refugee and her finding her way in America. This was such a hard-hitting and personal story, and I really think it should be required reading, especially as immigration and refugees continue to be such a hotly debated topic. This is not an easy read by any means but it is eye opening and important and does so much in such a short number of pages.
A eye opening yet heart breaking story of survival. This is a book to read slowly and reflect on as you go.
This novel was a wonderful narrative written through the lens of a survivor, and a fighter. Clemantine takes the reader on a rollercoaster of responses and emotions to the situations that she had and has experienced in her journey, and the amazing growth made out of conflict. The writing was pleasing to read and descriptive, and easily kept my attention.
I wanted to love this book. I did love how it introduces readers to what it is like to live through genocide through a highly personal story. I certainly learned a lot about the breakdown of Rwanda and just how bad things got throughout Africa. It was heartbreaking to read about Clemantine’s childhood, or lack thereof, as a refugee just trying to survive in a continent filled with filth and hate. Her story flipped from past to present as she tries to heal from her childhood experiences. The writing style was choppy and brusque which prevented me from being able to get into it as much as I wanted to. I still highly recommend this book to others as Clemantine’s story is important for us all to hear and to try to understand!
The Girl Who Smiled Beads is a powerful non-fiction book retelling Clemantine Wamariya’s incredible childhood.
At the age of six, Clemantine’s life in Rwanda changes beyond all recognition. The country begins to tear itself apart with mass genocide, and although she is too young to understand why, she understands the terror it brings with it. She and her sister are forced to flee from their home and their family, and they begin a seemingly never ending journey of suffering, deprivation, and unspeakable conditions.
It is a brutally honest story of resilience and survival. I am in awe of Clemantine. And I am so grateful to her for sharing her story and opening my eyes to this conflict which I knew little about.
I will definitely be recommending this book to others.
At the age of six, Clemantine’s life in Rwanda changes beyond all recognition. The country begins to tear itself apart with mass genocide, and although she is too young to understand why, she understands the terror it brings with it. She and her sister are forced to flee from their home and their family, and they begin a seemingly never ending journey of suffering, deprivation, and unspeakable conditions.
It is a brutally honest story of resilience and survival. I am in awe of Clemantine. And I am so grateful to her for sharing her story and opening my eyes to this conflict which I knew little about.
I will definitely be recommending this book to others.
I did not understand the point of the word genocide then. I resent and revile it now. The word is tidy and efficient. It holds no true emotion. It it impersonal when it needs to be intimate, cool and sterile when it needs to be gruesome. The word is hollow, true but disingenuous, a performance, the worst kind of lie.
It cannot do justice—it is not meant to do justice—to the thing it describes.
What a totally heartbreaking account of Clemantine and Claire's struggles and triumphs in the aftermath of the Rwandan war. I am struck by the six-year-old's precociousness, but really, what choice does she have? I am left heartbroken by the loss both women, and those around them, experience. This is truly a remarkable book!
vita ni mwizi—war is a thief.
Sad story and beautifully written but I wish it would have been told a bit more chronologically. Sometimes it was hard to follow. I didn't know much about what happened in Rwanda so this book was a real eye-opener.
informative
medium-paced
Great story, but unlikable narrator. The structure was fragmented, jumping between the present and the past so that neither was wholly engrossing, the genocide in Rwanda was only explained in an ad hoc manner toward the latter part on the book, and the conflict in Zaïre was not explained.