Thank you to Juliet Cutler book sparks (Booksharks) and She Writes Press for this copy of Among the Maasai for my honest review during this Booksharks Instagram Pop-up tour.

Among the Maasai is a eye opening memoir about a young woman’s journey to Tanzania during the late 1990’s to teach at the first secondary school for Maasai girls. She has high hopes for bettering the girls lives but she finds herself learning just as much or more than the girls about status,inequality and privilege. A journey to save and better these girls lives becomes a personal growth and soul searching experience.

This book was fantastic. Learning about another culture. Learning acceptance and compassion. There are some huge issues underlined in this book and at times it was a very hard read. But the awareness it gave me was so eye opening. The number one takeaway is how important empowerment through education is.

I thought a lot towards the end of this book about privilege. My 13 year old has days where she is very “meh” about going to school. As was I at her age. I could feel the young women in this books determination and appreciation of their education and it made me feel guilty for how easily we take advantage of education in Western culture. I thought the way Juliet explained her struggles with respecting a culture and trying to make these girls life better was vivid and so well written. The fine line between what we believe is right and what someone wants is so fine and the constant back and forth battle to keep it level is just insane.


This was absolutely a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 read. This book is now available where ever books are sold and all proceeds go to helping Maasai girls. There are a few TW is recommend you check out before you begin, but I implore you to please read this book if you are able to. I spent the last 20 pages covered in Goosebumps and fighting back tears.