In the first volume of an extraordinary autobiographical series, one of the most inspiring authors of our time recalls--with candor, humor, poignan...
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reviews
Jun 26, 2008
Brad
rated it: 
I really enjoyed this book. It was required reading for a University course I took on Adolescent Literature.
This book has been placed on banned book lists by needlessly close-minded people for it's real life content.
The book tastefully addresses issues of molestation, rape, racism. But it does so within the context of the trials and tribulations of growing up as well.
The book presents things in a direct and extremely vivid fashion, but it is not garishly or n More...
This book has been placed on banned book lists by needlessly close-minded people for it's real life content.
The book tastefully addresses issues of molestation, rape, racism. But it does so within the context of the trials and tribulations of growing up as well.
The book presents things in a direct and extremely vivid fashion, but it is not garishly or n More...
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(14 people liked it)
Oct 06, 2007
Jami
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In her nonfiction autobiography, Maya Angelou describes her life from her young girl life up to the birth of her first child at age 16. The book drew me in at the very beginning because of the talent Angelou has with language, scenery, and loading the moment with emotion. Another intense draw for me was the fact that it is a nonfiction book. I was constantly thinking I can’t believe she had these experiences.
When Maya turned three, she and her brother, Bailey, went to live with her More...
When Maya turned three, she and her brother, Bailey, went to live with her More...
Jan 11, 2009
Stephanie
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When I picked up I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou I knew two things:
1. The author is friends with Oprah and the Clintons.
2. The book is considered a classic.
The book is mostly set in the tiny town of Stamps, Arkansas. I lived much of my childhood within an hour's drive of Stamps so I found that detail very interesting.
The account of life as a Negro (the term Ms. Angelou uses) in rural Arkansas was fascinating. Some of it brought to mind me More...
1. The author is friends with Oprah and the Clintons.
2. The book is considered a classic.
The book is mostly set in the tiny town of Stamps, Arkansas. I lived much of my childhood within an hour's drive of Stamps so I found that detail very interesting.
The account of life as a Negro (the term Ms. Angelou uses) in rural Arkansas was fascinating. Some of it brought to mind me More...
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(7 people liked it)
Jul 03, 2008
Peter
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Feb 01, 2010
miaaa
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'What coloured people had done to white people in the first place?' Asked Bailey Jr. to Uncle Willie. The question, enquired by a mere little boy, summed up every bits of Maya's life in this book.
***
'Sebenarnya apa yang telah dilakukan orang kulit berwarna kepada mereka yang berkulit putih dahulu?' Tanya Bailey kecil kepada Paman Willie. Pertanyaan yang begitu sederhana namun sangat mengena.
***
'Sebenarnya apa yang telah dilakukan orang kulit berwarna kepada mereka yang berkulit putih dahulu?' Tanya Bailey kecil kepada Paman Willie. Pertanyaan yang begitu sederhana namun sangat mengena.
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Sep 29, 2010
JG (The Introverted Reader)
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The first volume in Maya Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is not an easy read. It picks up when she's three and her brother is four and they're being shipped from California to Arkansas--alone on a train. They live with their paternal grandmother for years. Maya writes poignantly and heart-breakingly, but never with self-pity, about life as an African-American girl in a segregated South.
I'm having a hard time writing this review. I occasionally run into th More...
I'm having a hard time writing this review. I occasionally run into th More...
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(2 people liked it)
May 22, 2011
jzhunagev
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Defying the Odds
(A Book Review of Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings)
The first volume in a five part nonfiction autobiography series, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings chronicles Maya Angelou’s coming-of-age in the segregated South during the 1930’s.
“If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.”
Told in the first person refle More...
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(7 people liked it)
Aug 06, 2011
Sandra
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This is a book I've been meaning to read for years, and I wasn't disappointed. Maya Angelou writes with intelligence and a growing view of her younger self and her place in the world. Her style matures as she portrays the young Marguerite growing older and learning about the world. From the age of three until the tale ends in her teens she describes a life of challenges, but is never defeated. She makes her choices (not always the best ones) and creates her own story of dignity as she rises
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Mar 14, 2009
Ari
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Another 7th grade humanities class read, this book, an autobiography of a young Maya Angelou, mixed all the things an autobiography needs. Some unbelievable events, tragic events that bring the reader closer to the narrator, and everyday life to bring things down to scale. The reader truly feels for Maya in her life of growing up Black in the south.
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Jan 15, 2009
I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou
Rating: 9/10
I really enjoyed this book. It is the autobiography of the poet as a young girl-- spanning from age three to the birht of her fistr child in her late teens. It is so rare to find a book about a famous person's childhood (unless of course the were famous as a child) and the book is exceptionally well written. The language gradually, subtly progresses as the main character ages. Even though it sounds like it would be boring and More...
Rating: 9/10
I really enjoyed this book. It is the autobiography of the poet as a young girl-- spanning from age three to the birht of her fistr child in her late teens. It is so rare to find a book about a famous person's childhood (unless of course the were famous as a child) and the book is exceptionally well written. The language gradually, subtly progresses as the main character ages. Even though it sounds like it would be boring and More...
Jan 26, 2012
Krista
rated it:
For reasons unknown to me as an English major, I've never read this book. Maya Angelou is someone I've always admired, so I decided when I was in the school library with my students who are researching famous African Americans, that I would pick it up and read.
I was instantly hooked with the storytelling and rich figurative language. I loved the voice--it could be hilariously childlike and hauntingly adult. I think that is the beauty of the book that she is able to look back on her More...
I was instantly hooked with the storytelling and rich figurative language. I loved the voice--it could be hilariously childlike and hauntingly adult. I think that is the beauty of the book that she is able to look back on her More...
Nov 26, 2011
Psheryl
rated it:
This autobiographical work, by Maya Angelou, is uplifting and inspiring. This book documents Angelou's early years as a child in Stamps, Arkansas. She recounts how she and her brother, Bailey, were raised by their grandmother, after the breakup of their parents' marriage. Angelou tells of her experiences as a young African-American being raised in the rural south. Several years later, she and Bailey are sent to live with their mother in Saint Louis. There she is molested by her mother's boyfrien
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Nov 07, 2011
Justine
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Just at the ages of three and four, Marguerite and her brother Bailey, two young black children, were sent to live with their Grandmother in Arkansas. They find themselves living in a racist city called Stamps. They begin to call their grandmother Momma, who is an uptight and religious woman. They also live with their Father’s brother named Uncle Willie, who is crippled. The children worked for Momma in her store, and received good grades. Marguerite and her brother received presents from their
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Sep 30, 2011
Hannah Toliver
rated it:
- I rated the book with a one star because I had too and I also really didn't like the book. The title appealed to me and I think that's what draws readers in especially if they have yet to read the back or know anything about it. The book was well written I just couldn’t relate really. I feel it’s just not something most people can relate too and that’s why I didn’t enjoy it as much.
- The book’s strengths were that it was very well written and easy to read. It was well put together a More...
- The book’s strengths were that it was very well written and easy to read. It was well put together a More...
May 31, 2011
Bernard
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Bernard Rodgers May 31, 2011
Book Review
I think that this book was okay but it wouldn’t be a book I would really recommend to someone else. I think that this book had some strong chapters that made it ok to read. But the book lacked the umph that I needed in order to keep the book glued to my h More...
Book Review
I think that this book was okay but it wouldn’t be a book I would really recommend to someone else. I think that this book had some strong chapters that made it ok to read. But the book lacked the umph that I needed in order to keep the book glued to my h More...
May 20, 2011
David
rated it:
This is the first installment of Ms. Angelou's serial autobiography. She lifts a line from Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem, "Sympathy" for the title of her book. Abandoned by her parents who acted more like children, raised by her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, and raped by one of her mother's boy friends, Maya Angelou knows from whence she speaks. Despite all of her trials and tribulations she has done as the protagonist of Ellison's "Invisible Man" asserts, "taken the bl
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May 03, 2011
Nan
rated it:
Another read with the kid. I actually liked this one better than I thought. Angelou tends to be on the platitudinous side with her current writing and anyone who gets that much exposure from Oprah is bound to be a little obvious. But this, her first book, is really lovely. She's nicely descriptive and a keen observer of other people, which will change in her later work, when it becomes all about her her her (probably one reason Oprah's such a fan). Here, she gives you a rich portrait of growing
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Apr 19, 2011
Neeraja
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This well acclaimed book is the autobiography of Maya Angelou (Marguerite Johnson), focusing on her childhood and teenage years. The memoir strings together Maya Angelou's vivid memories of her growing years in a hostile society that cruelly disregarded African Americans. Hailing from a broken family, Angelou and her brother are shifted between their mother, paternal grandmother and father. Her poetic prose conveys the deep angst of a young girl who is in search of a paternal figure to lean on f
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(1 person liked it)
Mar 06, 2011
Bev
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"The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerence. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance."
That quote sums up the entire experience of reading Maya Angelou's honest, heart-breaking, and wonderfully written story of growing up black in the 30s and 40s. That she can make her story so real to someon More...
That quote sums up the entire experience of reading Maya Angelou's honest, heart-breaking, and wonderfully written story of growing up black in the 30s and 40s. That she can make her story so real to someon More...
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Feb 23, 2011
Molly
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"If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult." Thus begins the story of Mauguerite or "Maya", a Southern Black girl growing up in various places across the US during the time of the Great Depression. Maya's story begins in Stamps, Arkansas where she and her older brother, Bailey, live with their grandma in the back of her store. There, Maya is raised to ke
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(1 person liked it)
Feb 06, 2011
Paul
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Now that I've researched, read, and reviewed a number of banned and challenged books, I'm no longer surprised that writing about sex, particularly from a young woman's point of view, whips up fear and suppression. And there's plenty of sex in Maya Angelou's childhood memoir, starting with her rape, at the age of 9, by her mother's live-in boyfriend, continuing with her description of her mother's life as a prostitute, her adventures in Mexico while her father visits a whorehouse, her teen-aged
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(5 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2010
William
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
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Jul 13, 2010
Sonya
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I know why the Caged Bird Sings: by Maya Angelou
Date Finished: August 2009
Snapshot: Maya Angelou tells the story of her childhood as an African American girl in the South and in California. This story deals with the serious issues of racism, rape, and abandonment. Embedded in the serious, are humorous accounts of her own self-consciousness, awkwardness, and discovery of literature.
“Hook”: It is an autobiography so the characters in the book are complex and very real More...
Date Finished: August 2009
Snapshot: Maya Angelou tells the story of her childhood as an African American girl in the South and in California. This story deals with the serious issues of racism, rape, and abandonment. Embedded in the serious, are humorous accounts of her own self-consciousness, awkwardness, and discovery of literature.
“Hook”: It is an autobiography so the characters in the book are complex and very real More...
Jun 10, 2010
Tiana
rated it:
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, is a autobiography. It is about a girl named Margurite, growing up and dealing with discrimination and racism in the south. Also dealing with rape, molestation and growing up through hardships as a child. She has to move to Arkansa to live with her grandmother, and there tradgic events happen. Her internal conflict is keeping her being raped a secret from her family, because she does not want her family to be killed. Her external conflict is b
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 04, 2010
Emilie
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I raced through the first four volumes of Maya Angelou's autobiography (along with this one, "Gather Together in my Name", "Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry like Christmas" and "Heart of a Woman"), a volume a day. Angelou's prose style is perfect, but these books are really worth reading because of her honesty and warmth.
Her portrait of her young life in Stamps, Arkansas, is painted with all the immediacy and urgency of childhood, but as an adult r More...
Her portrait of her young life in Stamps, Arkansas, is painted with all the immediacy and urgency of childhood, but as an adult r More...
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(2 people liked it)
Mar 02, 2010
Spark notes has to be the best thing created. Every summer I was given a reading list and I hit sparks notes up like crazy. As I read on spark notes the stories was beyond boring and it never failed, until I spark noted the book I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou. As I read the first two chapters I was very interested in the book and decided that I needed to go to Borders as soon as possible. I always thought spark notes was just a major cheat sheet, now I know that I was just using
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(5 people liked it)
Aug 10, 2009
Brittney
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At last. I found a book that i can relate to. Im sure a few people don't want to hear any of my humble, sista preachin , negro spiritual talk , but i will pour my heart out for this book. Because it is my catcher in the rye. It is my inspiration. it warmed my heart and gave me a thirst for knowledge and reading. Everybody has that one book that changes there aura and the way they view the world. This was it for me. I can understand why this book would be not so enjoyable for a person who can
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(4 people liked it)
Sep 03, 2010
Nicole
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I thought that this book was enjoyable to read during my summer. This book had a lot of mixed emotions. The book starts out with the protagonist Maya, a three year old black girl. At this age, her parents divorce, and send Maya and her four year old brother Bailey to Arkansas to live with their grandmother. In Stramps, Arkansas, Momma (Maya refers to the name Momma for her grandmother) runs a business in the black section of this town. Inside this business, Momma deals with imitating white child
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Aug 11, 2009
Bruce
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With the remembered perceptions of a child and the skill of a mature artist Civil Rights activist, poet and performer Maya Angelou recounts her childhood in what has become a modern classic of autobiography. Its honesty and command of the language should not be missed.
“When I was three and Bailey four, we had arrived in the musty little town, wearing tags on our wrists which instructed—“To Whom It May Concern”—that we were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson, Jr., from Long Beach, Californ More...
“When I was three and Bailey four, we had arrived in the musty little town, wearing tags on our wrists which instructed—“To Whom It May Concern”—that we were Marguerite and Bailey Johnson, Jr., from Long Beach, Californ More...
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Aug 12, 2011
Felicity
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Maya Angelou’s book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is an autobiography that follows her from age three to 16. She grew up in a small Arkansas town called Stamps where she went to elementary and middle school, then attended George Washington High school in San Francisco when she moved there to live with her mother.
Having a child when she was 17 didn’t stop her from becoming the “most visible black female autobiographer.” – Joanne M. Braxton. She wrote six autobiographies, wrote several More...
Having a child when she was 17 didn’t stop her from becoming the “most visible black female autobiographer.” – Joanne M. Braxton. She wrote six autobiographies, wrote several More...
