Two years ago, I read Clemantine Wamariya's memoir, The Girl Who Smiled Beads. This book was so absorbing, evocative, and poignant that I felt compelled to write an email to Clemantine. Please allow my email to serve as a review for her book:
5/29/2018
When I came across your novel, I was interested to read an account from a genocide survivor, but I never expected the influential impact that would follow. I turned each page in shock at what I was learning. I felt that I was reading about a time period that was so far away and unfamiliar, but the truth was that your story took place during my lifetime. I'm 31 years old, nearly the same age as you, and I realized that the Rwandan genocide was something that took place while I innocently and ignorantly grew up in my privileged and safe New Jersey home.
Every year, when we learn about the Holocaust, my students ask, "Why would people do something like this?" and then they state, "I'm glad this will never happen again." But the truth is that this has happened again - time and time again. And then an idea struck me: this might be the book I've sought for so long. This could be the story that our school curriculum needs to demonstrate that genocide, in fact, does happen, that something needs to be done, and that it starts with the way we accept others who are different from ourselves. With that being said, I am actively seeking approval from the Board of Education to incorporate your novel in my English classroom.
I want to thank you for writing your story and for sharing your personal experience so candidly. Your story is not just one about survival, but it is also about self-identity: a topic with which teenagers can closely relate. I am looking forward to teaching a novel so current and so poignant. Thank you for making a difference.
5 stars
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