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A review by k_paul
The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya
5.0
I decided to read this book next because we are going over it in class this week. The title of the book wasn't very compelling to me, but once I started reading and learned where it came from, it grew on me.
I would teach this book in schools. It gives a raw perspective of what it is like to experience trauma and how it can be nearly impossible to separate ourselves from that experience. It is not just a simple 'I'm safe now' instead, it takes time to heal and even then there is still a small part that feels like it can never be healed. This book doesn't shy away from the details that are in most lessons regarding genocide. I think this would be a good way for students to understand why it is so horrific and why we can't let it happen.
Warnings: sex (rape, brothels), R&R (mentions of Holocaust and WWII, brief mention of a speech impediment, strictly patriarchal society, play pretend war, mention of funeral, war, the Rwandan genocide, refugees, dehumanizing, 9/11, disease, racism, white privilege/ignorance, Civil War, Vietnam War, child soldiers, depression, infidelity, discrimination, identity crisis, separation of families, disconnect with assimilating into a new culture, an eight-year-old acting as a mother), language (very brief swearing - only mentioned three to four times), violence (Holocaust, cruel and unusual punishments, beatings, guns, bombings, grenades, rape, genocide, cutting, abusive husband,)
I would teach this book in schools. It gives a raw perspective of what it is like to experience trauma and how it can be nearly impossible to separate ourselves from that experience. It is not just a simple 'I'm safe now' instead, it takes time to heal and even then there is still a small part that feels like it can never be healed. This book doesn't shy away from the details that are in most lessons regarding genocide. I think this would be a good way for students to understand why it is so horrific and why we can't let it happen.
Warnings: sex (rape, brothels), R&R (mentions of Holocaust and WWII, brief mention of a speech impediment, strictly patriarchal society, play pretend war, mention of funeral, war, the Rwandan genocide, refugees, dehumanizing, 9/11, disease, racism, white privilege/ignorance, Civil War, Vietnam War, child soldiers, depression, infidelity, discrimination, identity crisis, separation of families, disconnect with assimilating into a new culture, an eight-year-old acting as a mother), language (very brief swearing - only mentioned three to four times), violence (Holocaust, cruel and unusual punishments, beatings, guns, bombings, grenades, rape, genocide, cutting, abusive husband,)