The
Storyteller's Beads by Jane Kurtz. Illustrated by Michael Bryant (1998)
Reading Level: Ages 8-12. 128 pages. Gulliver Books. ISBN: 0152010742.
This title is also available in a paperback edition from Scholastic,
Inc. "only for distribution through the school market." ISBN 0439155096.
|
The Storyteller's Beads
by Jane Kurtz
Even after I had several books published that were
set in Ethiopia, where I had spent most of my childhood, I still
resisted telling part of the story. When people asked me, "What about
the starving children?" I always pointed out the Ethiopia of my
childhood was not a place of starvation and war. I resisted writing
about that part of my Ethiopian memories until I was haunted by two
girls.
I was reading an ethnography of the Kemant (or
Qemant) community in northern Ethiopia and was intrigued by the comment
that the Kemant say Ethiopian Jews (people they call "Falasha") are
"buda," or possessed of the evil eye, while other ethnic groups think
the Kemant are "buda." What if a girl, growing up in a sheltered Kemant
community, was suddenly thrown into the wide world and found that the
same prejudice she'd been taught to direct toward others was
unthinkingly directed toward her? The other character came to me when I
read one sentence in a nonfiction book, a gathering of survival stories
of Ethiopian Jews who fled Ethiopia in the 1970s and 1980s. That
sentence talked about a blind girl who walked all the way to the Sudan
with her hand on her brother's shoulder. When I'm haunted by
characters, I write. But I didn't want to write a grim book, and I've
been touched by kids who wrote to tell me that they loved the drama of
the story and felt caught up in it, including the fourth grade boy who
told me, "I love your book," and ended his letter, "You have the
coolest vocabulary ever!"
Honors/Reviews:
Classroom Connections
Now available in paperback from Scholastic TAB.
- Join Scholastic's Readers' Circle
- Get Scholastic's Discussion Guide
- Read about Jane Kurtz on Scholastic Network
- Booklist on Scholastic Network.
- Read other experiences of children in war:
- Innocenti, Roberto. Rose Blanche (Harcourt) -- A stunning book and forceful argument for peace; a story of the homefront in Nazi Germany.
- Nye, Naomi Shihab. Sitti's Secrets.
Illustrated by Nancy Carpenter (Four Winds). -- The story of a girl who
lives in one country (the United States) while her grandmother lives in
the Middle East.
- In Nye's Sitti's Secrets the narrator
writes a letter to the President of the United States. After reading
the letter, write a letter that Mona might write to Rahel.
- Compare and contrast the experiences of the two girls in The Storyteller's Beads to those described in Haemi Balgassi's Peacebound Trains.
 |
Haemi Balgassi was born in Seoul, Korea, and moved to the United States
when she was seven years old. This award-winning picture book was
inspired by what really happened to Haemi's family as they had to flee
during the Korean War. The illustrator, Chris K. Soentpiet, was also born in Seoul. When he was eight, he was adopted by an American family.
Discuss the similarities to the experiences in the family in Peacebound Trains to those of Sahay and Rahel's war experiences? What are some differences? |
- Rahel and Sahay stay in a refugee camp in
the Sudan for a while. Many children from the Sudan have also become
refugees in recent years. Some books for learning more about those
children include:
- Wilkes, Sybella. One Day We Had to Run! (Millbrook Press)
- Archibald, Erika F., A Sudanese Family (Lerner Publications)
- A Sudanese Family, part of a Lerner series "Journey Between Two Worlds" may help readers understand Rahel and Sahay's journey, as will An Eritrean Family by Lois Anne Berg (Lerner).
- Research the city of Jerusalem, a place
where Rahel has grown up believing she ultimately belongs. One picture
book that can help is The Golden City: Jerusalem's 3000 Years by Neil Waldman (Atheneum).
- Prejudice is one of the themes in The Storyteller's Beads. To explore that theme further read:
- Fox, Mem. Whoever You Are. Illustrated by Leslie Staub. (Harcourt).
- After reading Fox's Whoever You Are.
Discuss what Rahel or Sahay might say to the narrator of the book, on
the airplane to Israel, about what they have learned. Make a list,
write a poem, or a letter to communicate your ideas.
What the Reviewers Had to Say
Based in fact, this is an original, powerful story of two Ethiopian
girls who become refugees in the 1980s.... The story is beautifully
told in words and phrases that enhance the exotic locale and situation
of the two endangered girls, who are richly portrayed. Kurtz keeps the
focus personal but never allows larger events to dissipate in this
engrossing tale." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Well versed in Ethiopia's cultures and history, Kurtz brings
conditions in that strife-torn country into sharp focus - and like
Frances Temple in Grab Hands and Run (1993), Kurtz ends her penetrating story on a note more hopeful than happy. Afterword, glossary." -- Booklist, John Peters
"Too often tragedies, such as the Ethiopian famine of the 80's, are
lost in numbers. How can anyone comprehend a million deaths? Jane Kurtz
has made the tragedy devastatingly real with her superb adventure of
two courageous girls. They not only survive against all odds, but they
overcome prejudices taught to them from birth. I found this an
accurate, eye-witness description of real people with none of the
weaknesses left out. This accuracy made the girls' friendship that much
more powerful." -- Nancy Farmer, author of two acclaimed books set in Africa including A Girl Named Disaster
"Jane Kurtz has recreated a world with such fine textural detail that
the characters' lives touch our own poignantly and powerfully. In our
fast-paced, facile world, this story of grace and dignity lends new
meaning to friendship and courage. It will help readers of all ages
explore another way of life that is very different from our own, with
our hearts as well as our minds." -- Suzanne Fisher Staples Author of the Newbery honor novel Shabanu -- a novel which vividly showed the world of a girl struggling against an arranged marriage.
"Jane Kurtz has crafted a story out of history with love and in so
doing makes familiar a world that is--for most of us--as unfamiliar as
a fantasy land. This story of two young girls and their combined
courage will linger long in my mind and heart." -- Jane Yolen, Award winning author and storyteller.
"The spare, lyrical writing that evokes the strength and challenge of
the Ethiopian countryside is still echoing for me. Jane Kurtz does a
wonderful job of using traditional, cultural, and religious stories to
create the context for her modern story of the political and social
upheaval that wracked Northern Africa in the past several decades. I'm
sure that The Storyteller's Beads will often find its way into bibliographies in Book Links
due to its strong themes of friendship, storytelling, respect for
culture and tradition, and the inability of ingrained prejudice to
withstand the truth and understanding that come with familiarity." Judy O'Malley, editor of Book Links
|
