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The Girl Who Smiled Beads

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The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story About War and What Comes After
AuthorClemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil
LanguageEnglish
SubjectRwandan genocide, Rwandan Civil War
GenreMemoir
PublisherDoubleday Canada
Publication date
April 24, 2018
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint
ISBN9780385687003

The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story About War and What Comes After is a memoir by Clemantine Wamariya, written alongside Elizabeth Weil, published April 24, 2018 by Doubleday Canada. The memoir follows Wamariya's experience as a childhood refugee from Rwanda. The book was a New York Times best seller,[1] was critically acclaimed, and received various accolades.

Plot

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The Girl Who Smiled Beads begins in Rwanda during the Rwandan Civil War, when Wamariya was six years old. Alongside her sister Claire, Wamariya fled Rwanda, spending the next six years traveling through seven African countries as refugees. In 2000, the Wamariya sisters were granted asylum in the United States, and they landed in Chicago, unsettled. Although Wamariya spoke five languages, she did not speak English, and at twelve years old, she had never attended school formally. The Girl Who Smiled Beads showcases how, even after being granted asylum, refugees often do not feel settled and struggle to find their way in a new country.

Reception

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The Girl Who Smiled Beads was a New York Times best seller.[1]

The book received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, calling it "a powerful coming-of-age story."[2][3] It also received positive reviews from The Washington Post,[4] Star Tribune,[5] Booklist,[6][7] Kirkus Reviews,[8] Library Journal,[9] and The Atlantic.[10] The New York Times Book Review provided a mixed review.[11] The New York Times included it in one of their "recommended books" lists.[12]

Beyond popular media outlets, The Girl Who Smiled Beads has been discussed in academic contexts, including The Lancet,[13] Roots International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches,[14] and Journal of the Campus Read.[15][16][17][18]

Accolades for The Girl Who Smiled Beads
Year Accolade Result Ref.
2019 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Longlist [19]
Alex Award Winner [20]
2018 Goodreads Choice Award for Memoir & Autobiography Nominee [21]
Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2018 Selection [22]
Kirkus Reviews' Best Biographies of 2018 Selection [23]

References

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  1. ^ a b "The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After". IndieBound. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  2. ^ "Nonfiction Book Review: The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil. Crown, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-0-451-49532-7". PublishersWeekly.com. 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2021-12-22. This book is not a conventional story about war and its aftermath; it's a powerful coming-of-age story in which a girl explores her identity in the wake of a brutal war that destroyed her family and home.
  3. ^ "Audio Book Review: The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil, read by Robin Miles. Random House Audio, unabridged, 8 CDs, 9 hrs., $40 ISBN 978-0-525-52628-5". PublishersWeekly.com. 2018-06-25. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  4. ^ Nora Krug. "A moment on 'Oprah' made her a human rights symbol. She wants to be more than that". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-12-22. "The Girl Who Smiled Beads" is at once terrifying and life-affirming.
  5. ^ Hertzel, Laurie (July 6, 2018). "Review: 'The Girl Who Smiled Beads,' by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil". Star Tribune. Retrieved 2021-12-22. Memoirs by immigrants and refugees are growing in number; they are important stories that need to be told, and told in the kind of bug-and-mud-and-dysentery detail that Wamariya's is told.
  6. ^ Eathorne, Courtney (March 1, 2018). The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After. Retrieved 2021-12-22 – via Booklist. Sliding easily between past and present, this memoir is a soulful, searing story about how families survive.
  7. ^ The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After. July 2018. Retrieved 2021-12-22 – via Booklist.
  8. ^ "The Girl Who Smiled Beads". Kirkus Reviews. February 20, 2018. Retrieved 2021-12-22. Not quite as attention-getting as memoirs by Ismail Beah or Scholastique Mukasonga, but a powerful record of the refugee experience all the same.
  9. ^ "The Girl Who Smiled Beads". Library Journal. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  10. ^ Hulbert, Ann (2018-04-24). "'The Girl Who Smiled Beads' Is a Revelatory Memoir of Survival". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-12-22. The fractured form of her own narrative—deftly toggling between her African and American odysseys—gives troubled memory its dark due. Healing does not spell an end to hurting.
  11. ^ Okeowo, Alexis (2018-05-07). "From the Rwandan Genocide to Chicago: A Young Author Survived to Tell Her Story (subscription required)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  12. ^ "8 New Books We Recommend This Week (subscription required)". The New York Times. 2018-05-24. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  13. ^ Kennedy, Anna (August 2018). "The girl who shared her words". The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. 2 (8): 560. doi:10.1016/s2352-4642(18)30218-9. ISSN 2352-4642. S2CID 165189586.
  14. ^ Priyanga, V.; Davaseeli, G. Ruby (March 2021). "Impact of civil wars in the memoirs of Clemantine Wamariya's The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After and Luong Ung's First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" (PDF). Roots International Journal of Multidisciplinary Researches. 7 (1): 100–138. ISSN 2349-8684.
  15. ^ Rupp, Andrea (2021). "These Stories are Yours, These Stories are not Yours: On Wamariya's Framework of Sharing". Journal of the Campus Read. 1 (3): 1–5.
  16. ^ Imming, Suzanne (2021-06-14). "The Building of Clemantine: Clemantine's life through architecture". Journal of the Campus Read. 1 (1): 10–16.
  17. ^ Temme, Megan (2021-06-14). "When the Fighting Ceases". Journal of the Campus Read. 1 (1): 6–9.
  18. ^ Thundiyil, Alex (2021-06-14). "Digital Story Telling: Clemantine's Life described through my lenses". Journal of the Campus Read. 1 (1): 17–24.
  19. ^ "2019 Winners". Reference & User Services Association (RUSA). 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  20. ^ "2019 Alex Awards". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). 2020-01-27. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  21. ^ "The Girl Who Smiled Beads". Goodreads. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  22. ^ "50 notable works of nonfiction in 2018". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
  23. ^ "Best Biographies of 2018". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 2021-12-22.
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