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 up in multiple and very diverse locations, as well as of the people who fill up the tapestry.

Her main issue is black identity, not just for young girls but for boys as well, and in this book, she's very powerful. She has an ability to jump right back into her child body and report things very clearly from that perspective, which is rare. (Certainly, it's a much more genuine voice than that of Harper Lee, but I realize I'm in the minority there.) It would be great fun to sit with her because she has a million stories, and that's how this book works, a slew of childhood incidents that hang nicely together as a narrative. Her later books don't work nearly as well. And she's clearly a powerful influence on a generation of memoirists who find themselves endlessly fascinating, which sometimes works to great effect but often....doesn't.