This book provides well-written insight into growing up as a black child during the Depression. Maya Angelou is wonderful with her use of words and imagery. I was greatly reminded of my own childhood and what being a kid really meant. Written in first person, she addresses childhood fears, respect for adults and growing up with such tangible details that she could be her eight-year-old self again.

Angelou's insights into the African-American way of life and religion during a time of national change range from tender to comical. She speaks warmly of her love for her brother and her frustration with the young white girls. It is sweet to see the growing up process taking affect and the experiences of youth shaping her character.

I am somewhat relieved that we were not permitted to read this book back in my high school literature class where many parents were opposed to it. I fear it would have caught me off guard in many respects. Many of the sexual themes running throughout the book are quite heavy and discussed in detail. Both the subjects of rape and teen pregnancy are covered and sex in general is frequently alluded to.

Though I do perceive this as a lovely piece of literature, I would be cautious in offering it to teens and others who may be unprepared for its impact.

This is another autobiography by Maya Angelou.

Here, she tells of the hardships she experienced in growin up: her parent's divorce, being sent to live with their grandmother in a small, Arkansas town and its racism, sexual abuse and more emotional scarring.

Eventually, Maya finds a father figure and when better things began to happen to her, she started to find her voice.

This is honest and gripping...

We are the members of the South Mill Young Readers Book Club located in Conyers, Georgia. We are in the thirteen year old age bracket and thought it would be challenging to attempt to read and understand this story. As a result of our reading, we rate the book as follows:

Creativity - B+
Enjoyment - A+
Price - B+

We would recommend this book to others in our age group to read it.

Typed by Book Club Instructor: mwg

I thought this book was an interesting read, however it was difficult to finish at times. What made me continue to finish the book was the beautiful way Maya Angelou writes. I found her story to be a bit dry and slow at times. However, her preserverance to become successful in life dispite her many obstacles kept me interested in this book. If I had not known how successful Maya Angelou's life turned out, I might not have finished the book. I was interested in knowing her journey. I recommend this book for teenage girls who are struggling with self-esteem issues and teen pregnancy because Maya Angelou's story can be used as a great encouragement to hang in there despite adversity.

Definitely not what i thought when i was assigned to read this book by my professor. Maya Angelou definitely led an interesting life, but the way it was written makes her seem self- conscious and doubtful of hew own recollections, i personally did not like or understand it. i had to rely on sparknotes to guide me to the end of this most unique... book. i would not recommend it.

I read with my daughter who is in the 7th grade. Her teacher assigned to read as a book report. The students had to write about symbols, motifs, etc. and compare them to personal life experiences. But, as we read together, the words were very graphic beginning around ( i believe chapter going forward ) describing the rape by Maya mother's boyfriend, Mr. Freeman. The book stated that his private part " stood up like a piece of corn ". This is not a " youth friendly book ". PARENTS : Take time to read with your children. I gave two stars because there were funny, interesting points in the book at teh beginning. Other than that, INAPPROPRIATE !

I know why the caged bird sings is the glorious yet sad
tale of Maya Angelou's coming of age as a young girl.
I don't want to give away the story but it is rife with
abuse, family conflicts, the power of forgiveness, the
need to find meaning in one's life. It is slow but it's
like an old friend, you'll want to take your time with
this book and that's only a small part of what makes it
a gem.

Maya Angelou's first memoir gives us a glimpse of how isolated segregation made Afro.-Americans during the 30's. But she goes to a wider range of experiences as she goes from rural Arkansas to St. Louis, where she experiences a terrible crime. But even through hardships she repeats her belief about literature saving her. She later goes to California where she becomes a young woman of determination and yet at the same time confusion. Maya Angelou makes very powerful statements when looking back on herself. I would recommend this for teens (15-up) because some themes and subjects might be too much for younger children.

Maya Angelou narrates the story about her own life growing up. At first it seems more like a novel and it often occurs to you as read this that it is a surprise to be able to have this insight into this author.

The characters are in some ways what you might expect from a child of broken homes. A grandmother who had been married three times, a mother and father who were divorced. The mother's boyfriends have a strong role in what happens to Maya. Her seduction and method of dealing with it and its consequences are compelling and you are left with a feeling of sadness for her helplessness. Maya's method of dealing with this and many of the other things in her young life gives her escape through fantasy. Maya's world is filled with much that allows us to connect with it.

This young girls experiences are challenging yet we are influenced as we read this story by the reality of Maya Angelou's many accomplishments and her influence. This comparison of her youth and who she is validates that idea that good comes from dysfunctional situations and every person has potential and value.

Wonderful overview of who Mya Angelou actually is and what makes her the person she is. Very poignant, sometimes extremly funny and sometimes brings you to tears. A lovely, proud woman; someone you would be thrilled to call your friend, because if she was your friend, she would be true blue. She is sassy, proud, scared, fearless. I laughed when she laughted and felt some of the pain she must have felt when she realized things were not always as they seem to be.

Maya Angelou brings to life an era that cannot and must not be forgotten. It was not that long ago in America that blacks were seen as another, inferior nation that was taught, explicitly and implicitly, to know its place. Anyone who wishes to understand the underpinnings of the civil rights movement of the 20th century, as well as African Americans' continued struggle for equality today, should read this book.

I found it particularly noteworthy that Angelou and her family in the rural South of the 1930s employed a very strong defense mechanism: They concluded that white people were the ones who were awkward, strange, inferior, possibly not even human. This was the only way for them to survive day to day.

This is a must read for adults and teenagers alike.

Maya Angelou's memoir of growing up in the 1930's and 40's offers a cold, hard assessment of the petty indignities, fear and racism (both subtle and overt) African-Americans endured (and continue to live with.) But what makes this wonderful book shine is the way in which Maya (and her family and those around her) face, challenge and overcome these indignities. Added to this is Angelou's writing, which has a rythm, ebb and flow to it - in reading it is clear that she is a poet.

Added to the weight of racism, Angelou wrestles with sexism (making her doubly powerless: a woman and an African-American) and repeated and continuous displacement as she is shuttled from household to household. The transformation she makes from girl to womanhood is as powerful as it is moving. That she learns how to become the "formidible character" that many women of color are is a testament to her (and their) courage and strength. It is clear to me why this is considered such a seminal work in American literature. Easy to read yet powerful and uplifting, I highly recommend it.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is one of the best books of all time. Unfortunately, Heinemann Publishers did not do this novel justice. The typeset (by CentraCet Limited) is squeezed on a slim page less than five inches. The right margin is less than 3/8 inch and affords only distracting aesthetics. I wanted a hardcopy but only received a binding - I'm sure Maya could not have approved. I was truly disappointed with the printing because I wanted a copy of this novel that I could pass on to my daughters. Disappointed and Let Down!

You know, I know it's my fault but I read this book nearly halfway through before I realized it was autobiography and not novel. When Angelou starts explaining the origin of her nickname Maya, a light bulb went off and then I looked at the spine of the book and smacked my forehead and realized that this was, indeed, a true story. It is a compliment, however, that Angelou's book reads like a novel, and the early descriptions of her eccentric (maybe not, maybe many southern churches are like this and I just don't know) church are hysterical, and then she handles an early heartbreak beautifully: she tells the truth and doesn't overdo the wretchedness. At the end, you're left with the memory of the author's bravery instead of the memory of the cruel world in which she sometimes moved. Oh, and one of the lovelier titles I know...

The book taught a lot on the time before aparthied. It was a moving story on how fathers connect to their sons and the country being under racial segragation

anyone interested in a truly good book. I believe a person who has had to overcome obstacles are sources of inspiration for those who want to learn from her struggles.

My husband, who has never read any of Dr. Maya Angelou's works can't wait to get his hands on this one. I will purchase this book AGAIN for my library collection and add it as a must read to my children's school curriculum.

I had to read this book in ninth grade honors English. I thought the book was one more the more profound wastes of time I had ever expended when I was done. Now that I'm in college however, I do not despise the book as much. I still feel that it is of very little value. Had the author been white and not helped along by Ophra, this work would be largely unnoticed. It's just another story about how someone had a rough life... with nothing to differentiate it from all of the other books like it. The reason I have rated it so low is because it seemed to be an agenda setting work. Maya Angelou is black and has used this book to help push her liberal agenda. Again - if Maya Angelou was white and was not well liked by Ophra, the book would have flopped. I would not recommend this at all... especially if you are a conservative.

I had to read this book in ninth grade honors English. I thought the book was one more the more profound wastes of time I had ever expended when I was done. Now that I'm in college however, I do not despise the book as much. I still feel that it is of very little value. Had the author been white and not helped along by Ophra, this work would be largely unnoticed. It's just another story about how someone had a rough life... with nothing to differentiate it from all of the other books like it. The reason I have rated it so low is because it seemed to be an agenda setting work. Maya Angelou is black and has used this book to help push her liberal agenda. Again - if Maya Angelou was white and was not well liked by Ophra, the book would have flopped. I would not recommend this at all... especially if you are a conservative.

"The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power." The story of Maya Angelou's childhood, portrayed in her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, truly sustains this notion. For two uncontrollable factors, her gender and race, Marguerite faces the burden of racial prejudice and sexual inferiority on a day to day basis. At the young age of four, on the separation of her parents, Maya and her brother Bailey are sent by train from Long Beach, California, to Stamps, Arkansas as "poor little motherless darlings" to be taken under the care of their grandmother, "Momma", and handicapped uncle, "Uncle Willie". During the years of the Great Depression, (through which they remain unaffected), Maya and Bailey enjoy the simplicity of childhood. They spend their days working in the family grocery store, attending their African American primary school, and basking in the joy of each others' company. But on returning to California at age seven, in order to see, for the first time, her long lost parents, Maya faces an abrupt realization of the imperfections of this world when her perfect image of her mother and father is shattered, and she is raped by her mother's boyfriend -destroying her sense of self-worth. Maya returns to Stamps only to be faced with racial prejudice. Under severe pain, she is refused service from a white dentist who would "rather stick [his] hand in a dog's mouth than in a nigger's," - further crumbling her self esteem, and leading her to believe that not only is she an African American woman, but an ugly, unworthy, inferior, human being. But through all of these and many more challenges Maya prevails. She permanently returns to her birth mother in California, where she becomes determined to make something of herself - resolute to succeed in her plans to become a "conductorette" - an occupation for which black people are "not accepted." "I WOULD HAVE THE JOB. I WOULD BE A CONDUCTORETTE AND SLING A FULL MONEY CHANGER FROM MY BELT. I WOULD," Maya reflects, proving her strong will against all odds. Through much struggle she gains her dream job, and eventually becomes the strong woman that she is today. Angelou describes her journey's successful conclusion as "an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors."
Angelou tells her inspiring story in such a way that the reader begins to mistake her autobiography for a lyrically-written novel. Each chapter beautifully shares an individual unique memory, each adding detail to Maya's voyage to maturity and plight in desire for love. Angelou is a descriptive writer who paints a clear portrait of each event. She provides laughter and tears, disabling the reader from putting her book down until it is finished. I truly enjoyed I Know why the Caged Bird Sings and believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn and grow from Angelou's story at some point in his/her lifetime.

Maya Angelou pours her heart and soul into the pages of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. She opens a window into her life that leaves the reader feeling voyeuristic and inspired at that same time. Spanning her life from her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas to the birth of her son when she's sixteen I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings leaves the reader anxious for the next book of Ms. Angelou's life. You can feel the dirt on your feet, smell Sunday dinner, and feel the silence of Angelou's self imposed muteness. Maya Angelou has a way with words captures the reader's imagination.

In her autobiographical novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou recounts her life story as a young, keenly intelligent but insecure black girl in the South during the 1930s and California during the 1940s. The book conveys the difficulties associated with the mixture of racial and gender discrimination endured by a southern black girl, though, and this is perhaps the most fundamental theme explored in her autobiography. The intersectionality of race and gender is a pivotal thread of Angelou's theme, where more than one type of subjugation results in a multiple burden for the victim. Overall, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a powerful, stirring account of the intersectionality of race and gender regarding black women. Though segregation had been officially declared null and void, many of the Southern states were steeped in racist tendencies that further multiplied the gender inequality that exposed black women to a multi-faceted oppression. Peiss, Hine, Terborg-Penn, Bederman, et. al. all examine threads of this intersectionality, and in discussing these threads, one can draw a distinct comparison between anti-black, anti-black women sentiment and Angelou's personal experiences. As a girl, Angelou believed her gender to be a limiting factor. She considered herself to be unheroic, and incapable of achieving spectacular feats like the boys in her comic books. In the narrative, being female for Angelou is just as trying as being black, and she struggled with the double burden, rather than embracing it. However, as more and more black women slowly overcame their troubles as a result of the overwhelming intersectionality of the time, so did Angelou. The novel ended with hope because she bucks the stereotype to become the first black female streetcar conductor. Angelou's spike in confidence and belief in her ability reflects the gradual evolution of black women's race and gender after decades of imprisonment, and foreshadows a future of activism, struggle for respect and eventual victory in those regards.

The Essence of Dreams...The Creativeness of Silence...The Fortitude of Love...

The Essence of Dreams...The Creativeness of Silence...The Fortitude of Love...

Never before has such a poorly written book received such acclaim. Maya Angelou wrote this story not with candor and grace but with a bias rarely allowed to sit on shelves let alone the top of a best-seller list. She was not humorous but had a heinousness of character and action that places her beyond the limits of human pity. This "inspiring author" did not demonstrate poignancy and depth but the crude rudiments of writing skill below that found in the essays of a primary school student.

Maya Angelou has portrayed herself as a victim of fate and yet at best her actions can only be described as foolhardy. In an attempt to prove to herself that she isn't a lesbian (a term she apparently doesn't understand) she initiates a deed without thinking of the consequences. She repeatedly gratifies her ego by exalting her academic accomplishments, yet doesn't grasp the fallacies of her own actions until it is far too late.

Several fans have seen her as an example to women. I must disagree with this ardently. Every teenage girl using her as a role model and demonstrating such lack of forethought puts herself at risk for sexual assualt, neglect, STDs, and teen pregnancy.

My only hope for this book is a quick and discreet cremation. May her name never be mentioned in the same breath as Margaret Atwood or any other great modern writer of either gender, and ANY nationality.

I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS is indeed autobiographical, yet it is more than that, and its importance lies not so much in its description of the author's early childhood but in the historical picture it conveys of a country split by an almost unbridgeable racial divide. This book explains more about race relations (or lack thereof) in the 20th century United States than does any textbook on sociology, psychology, or American history that I have ever come across. By portraying the development of a young Black girl as she was formed and shaped by that divide, the book gives the reader a "real world" case study of the effects of a segregated Black-White society.

Lest any reader erroneously conclude that this book deals with only the historical past, let us take a moment to correct that misapprehension. In July 2006, an analysis on PBS television focused on a high school and its surrounding neighborhood in contemporary Mississippi. Four decades after the Civil Rights movement took down legal segregation in the United States, there is no integration in this school or this community, and Whites and Blacks remain firmly separate and unequal. No "economic opportunity" is visible to Black students in this neighborhood, and, with no social or economic reward awaiting, where is the motivation to complete high school, much less college? With such a low average education level, the community is scarcely attractive to outside investors, and so the circle of ignorance, poverty, alienation, and separation continues from generation to generation. This is precisely the situation that the reader will find in Angelou's book, even though it depicts a town in Arkansas over six decades ago! The book, shamefully enough, could have been written this year. No, it is not "only history."

Because Angelou's book is best described as episodic, i.e., focusing on a succession of significant episodes in her early life, I occasionally found the chronology somewhat less clear than I might have wished. This is as close as I can come to finding anything in the book to criticize. I do, however, find something else very surprising. While I am not challenging Angelou's veracity, I must express surprise in meeting an elementary-school-age girl who escapes into the novels of Jane Eyre. Equally surprising is her next autobiographical installment, GATHER TOGETHER IN MY NAME, when the reader is presented with a teen-age girl who loves the novels of Dostoevski. To encounter any child, much less one some of whose public school teachers themselves had only eighth grade educations, reading novels of this caliber does force the reader at least to consider the possibility that the author has attributed later interests to an earlier period in her life.

Such perturbations notwithstanding, the book remains a powerful glimpse into a culture and a society that is neither seen nor understood by most of white, middle-class America. It is an uncomfortable story that should help expand White America's comprehension of the uncompromisingly repressive and destructive nature of racism and of the socially destructive results of growing up in its presence. As a White Southerner by birth who clearly remembers "White Only" signs over water fountains in the county courthouse, I recommend the book to everyone with the courage to expend his or her vision of where we all are today and how and why we got here.

Maya Angelou's I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS has achieved one of modern literature's great prizes: a fixed place in the high school literary canon from which it is, for all intents and purposes, untouchable. Hers is now the archetype for the black coming of age story, apparently supplanting such earlier classics as MANCHILD IN THE PROMISED LAND (my high school reading) and NATIVE SON. Naturally, in keeping with the times, Ms. Angelou's book is also filled with all the psychodramas of the late 20th Century confessional novel - childhood rape, revenge murder of the rapist, grossly irresponsible parents (her mother shoots her gambling parlor business partner, her father is a drunken philanderer and petty thief), pregnancy out of wedlock, and sexual ambiguities regarding her fears of incipient lesbianism. Add to this the experience of (mostly) Southern white racism, and the result is a toxic brew from which an intelligent, well-adjusted, adult black woman could only have emerged through a miracle. As Salman Rushdie chides Ms. Angelou in his book FURY, "O, her dauntlessness in the face of poverty and cruelty! O, her joy when Fate chose her to be one of its Elect!"

Not to say that Maya Angelou's most renowned work is without merit - quite the contrary. Ms. Angelou writes with great feeling, drawing her young life as Marguerite Johnson (the book ends with the birth of her son when she is about 18 years old) through a series of entertaining vignettes filled with memorable personalities. Several episodes capture magically the place of family and church religion in black life, as well as the few but invariably hazardous intersections of black lives with white lives in 1930's, small town Arkansas. Her memoir often reads as a sort of prose poem, filled with strong images and apt metaphors. When she describes being raped as an eight-year-old by Mr. Freeman, her mother's 50-year-old boyfriend, Ms. Angelou juxtaposes the Biblical image of the impossibility of the camel passing through the eye of a needle with the horror of the physical event itself; the result is a literary gem. She is also a master of the sudden contrast, offering joy or hope and then grabbing it away (or despair followed by small triumph), sometimes in a single sentence. For example, her story of the people of Stamps, Arkansas thrilling to Joe Louis's heavyweight championship victory over Primo Carnera ends with the recognition that it would not do for a black man walking home that night to be caught alone by whites. Vicarious victory and celebration is reduced to harsh reality and dread in a single closing sentence.

Despite the undeniable beauty of her prose and her captivating style of storytelling, Maya Angelou's memoir seems somehow less than it purports to be. She hardly seems to be the "caged bird" of her title. Intelligent and well-read almost beyond believability (how many eleven-year-olds are reading JANE EYRE for the second time and tossing around references to Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Poe, Kipling, Thackeray, Samuel Butler, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Jonathan Swift?), Marguerite issues from a family that is better off than most of her community. She never works the cotton fields like the many poor black workers who visit her grandmother's store every morning. Her parents can ship Marguerite and her brother Bailey from California to her grandmother in Arkansas, then to St. Louis, back to Arkansas, then off to San Francisco without undue strain. Her grandmother had even accumulated enough money to make an interest-free loan to the local white dentist during the Depression. The Johnson children have time and opportunity to go to school and, after their chores, engage in prodigious amounts of reading. They hardly live in the lap of luxury, but they seldom seem to want for food, clothing, and shelter. As many of her difficulties growing up seem to have come from disgracefully irresponsible parenting (excluding her paternal grandmother) as from white racism.

Marguerite and her brother live much of their early lives in a small town Arkansas community where the KKK's presence is inferred but never experienced, although there is no doubt that racism and its deleterious effects were abundant. Still, to paraphrase Will Rogers, young Marguerite Johnson "never met a white person she didn't fear or hate," despite the fact that the major horror visited upon her young life was inflicted by a black man. When she arrives in San Francisco and watches the Japanese Nisei spirited away to American "holding camps," she rationalizes away her lack of sympathy (and her own form of racism) with the argument that blacks had already been living the concentration camp life of slavery for over two centuries. The white dentist who indignantly refuses to pull Marguerite's painfully aching teeth ("I'd rather stick my hand in a dog's mouth") is given no quarter either - as cowardly and shameful as he was, the adult Ms. Angelou doesn't even allow for the possibility that, in that place and time, the dentist was protecting his own business from the wholesale loss of his white clientele. Hardly an acceptable excuse, yet understandable nevertheless. Even with the hindsight and perspective of an adult memoirist, she evinces no regret or dismay over the brutal murder (apparently kicked to death) of Mr. Freeman, a black man, by her three uncles.

Memoirs are a curious form of fictionalized non-fiction, certainly so when written 40 years after the fact. Conversations and whole scenes are fashioned from cloudy images and selectively blurred memories, recast in the light and values of a newer age to fit both the objectives and the present self-image of the memoirist. Suggestions of poverty, racial violence, and rampant white racism abound in this book, implying that Marguerite Johnson's transformation into Maya Angelou was something of a miracle, a personal triumph of an indomitable spirit. Perhaps so. Yet reading I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS, I couldn't help but wonder what Ms. Angelou wasn't telling us.

The caged bird probably sings because it never had the displeasure of reading this trash.
Maya Angelou is quite a revered writer, and in my opinion, a very capable poet. However, this book just seems incomplete. It's like an artist's sketch before he paints a true masterpiece, except the masterpiece never showed up. It's a shame, because this book had potential. I expected it to be more about how she grew to become a writer, and in part it was, but here comes my main gripe about the book.
The stories she tells are intensely boring. She has entire chapters devoted to the following:

Pissing herself in church
Her crippled uncle trying to stand up
Momma beating her for saying "by the way"

They have absolutely no point to her growth. I did not see how they were important factors in molding her into the person she is. They didn't link, they didn't have any points of relevance, and above all, they were just intensely boring.

It's just astounding how she managed to make her own life seem boring. I felt nothing for her throughout the entire book. Her style of writing was distanced as far as possible from the reader. I would've been more moved by bullet points on her life. Save your money, time, and sanity; Read wikipedia.

I love this book by Maya Angelou. She is such a real person and she touches your heart with every stroke of her pen. Her life is such a testimony to us all. I am Native American and I identify with her and her writing as much as her African American brothers and sisters.

In truth, i thought this book was DREADFUL. There was a lot of hype surruonding this book, and i was excited to read it for an english assignment. I was Very disappointed. This book is boring, slow,and downright tedious. This book was easy to understand, but is overshadowed by the boring plot. As horrible as this sounds, the most interesting part of the book was the rape and molestation, but even that contained bland descriptions and was NOT even that good. I give this book two stars out of respect to Maya Angelou, but I did not find this book interesting or stimulating in the least bit.

In the book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, is a wonderful book. It is an autobiography and if you like learning about people this is a lady you should read about. I am a type of person that hates to read and I really enjoyed this book. This autobiography is about a little girl growing up in Arizona with her grandmother, brother, and uncle. Their parents have separated, and this is why they are living with their grandmother at the age of three and four. The book has great scenes such as Maya being able to go meet a popular lady of the town. It also has sad scenes such as when their father showed up to take them to see their mother that they have not seen since there parents separated. That is exciting for them they thought but there mothers boyfriend that they liked so much ended up sexually abusing her. Her mother didn't believe anything she said because she finally found a man that she liked since there father. Finally her mother believes her and then got to read for the rest of that part. The scene is a country town poor black family that owned a little store and had very hard times. There grandmother they called mama is very strong and made them good to school and to do all the right thing. I read this book when I was in the eleventh grade and I enjoyed it so much I loved it so much if anyone asked me should they read it I would say yea I loved it that much usually I would be like I didn't like that book. If you like to read I think you would enjoy this book. After finding out she was abused I was like why would someone do that it bad why would you even think about doing that to someone. But to find out Maya had a good life after all that happened and to turn into a good women and writer and to not give up and not think she is someone that inspires me because I know people that it has just messed up there whole life. If you think you would like to read about a country girl growing up this is the book to read I hope you like it as much as I did. Again the name is I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou.

As a 22 year old college student, I had never even heard of Maya Angelou until we were required to do an out of class literary project. It just so happened that she was visiting our campus, and I went to hear her speech. She is an amazing speaker...so poetic that most of what she says would go over a lot of people's heads. I was hooked on her, and wanting to know more, I went out and bought this book. The introduction before chapter one is written in the same way she speaks. I was impressed with the completely uncensored honest way in which she tells her story. Her descritions and feelings of being molested and raped as a young child showed a side most people would never imagine speaking of. She is an amazingly strong women with an amazing life history. I plan on reading the rest of her autobiographical books and would recommend that everyone read this one!

I gave the book I know Why The Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou 3 out of 5 stars. To me reading about the situations that the main character Maya had to go through was hard. There were so many bad things that led up to the good. She grew up with her younger brother Bailey. They lived in California and later had to move with there grandparents. Their mother Vivian had a boyfriend who was referred to as Mr. Freeman. He was not very nice to Maya and raped her on more then one occasion. Mr. Freeman told Maya that if she told anyone, he would kill her little brother. She swore that she wouldn't tell anyone and she then became sick and let out the big secret. The case went to court. Mr. Freeman was accused guilty, and was later murder. Maya felt responsible and the murder haunted her for the rest of her childhood. Maya's grandparents own a shop, which she worked at, and it became a huge part in her life. In this book Maya seems to have very low self-esteem and she thinks that she will never measure up to white girls. Later Maya was sent to live with her real mother again, and at this time she was married, and they moved to San Francisco. There was a fight with her new father and she was cut. Maya ran away and lived in a junk yard with homeless teenagers. Maya became pregnant and didn't tell her parents for eight months. In the end Maya began to feel comfortable with herself after graduating highschool, and her pregnancy and her new born soon. There was a lot going on in this book and the drama didn't stop. There was always something new happening. I liked this book because it was easy to read and to keep on going, but it was so tragic that at points you didn't want to keep on reading.

I know why the Caged Bird Sings is a good book to tell people how people all around the world live and how you should sometimes by glad with what you have right now while you have it. Maya angelou goes deep to the concept of what she went through when she was a child till she gave birth to her first child. I give this book five stars because it was very enjoyable and in depth. I can read this book over and over again. Even though I already did...I would still read it again.

I could have read on and on and on. Ended much too abruptly. Fabulous, fabulous book. I have not read any book by a black woman author that I didn't think terrific. They seem to have such a gift. And what a childhood she had! Raped at eight, a mother at 16. Which is where the book ends. Too soon. All of the people are powerfully drawn. And there are many. Angelou simply confronts this childhood with a kind of wonder. Kind've "Was this really me?" and "How did I get through it?" Her description of the rape is eye-opening. I would never have believed a child could feel guilty for such a thing. Yet she did. And her lack of education on sex was to blame. It is both a touching, moving, yet at times, comic, tale. Just like childhood. She uses rich, poetic images.

DONT ever read this book! It is HORRIBLE. I had to read this for a school project and I would never ever read it again, or even touch the book again. Everyone in our class hated it and wanted to stop reading it. If you have to read this book or want to, think again, I IT HORRIBLE. It's a disgrace to literature. HORRIBLE. DON'T READ IT. The book on top of being just horrible, It had to point. I cou;dn't even finish reading it it was so bad. My advice, and probually everyone's from my literature class is simply don't read it!

I would recommend this book to anybody because it's a really inspirational and uplifting book. Maya Angelou is an excellent author who has overcame many tough obstacles in her lifetime, which we read about in this book. After reading some of Maya Angelou's rough experiences she went through in her life, you would probably have to say wow! I used to think that autobiographies were boring, but now, this book is my favorite. A movie version of this book could not compare because Maya Angelou's choice of words lets the reader visualize the setting, feel what she's feeling and the intensity, shock, sadness at certain points are really incredible. If you're going through a tough time in your life, feel weak or helpless, reading this book will get you up and running again. It's somewhat refreshing in a sense that after you finish reading it, you feel like you can conquer anything life throws your way. You feel invincible, like nothing can possibly break you. You'll feel like you can bounce back from anything depressing almost immediately. You start to feel your strength, confidence, and sense of self come back to you. Maya Angelou is an author that once you pick up her book, you won't be able to put it down. I found myself staying up at all hours of the night reading this book because I had to see what happened next. I was first introduced to this book in an English class of mine. We read an excerpt and I, along with the rest of the class had questions and wanted to read more, so I knew I wouldn't be satisfied with only reading the excerpt, and went to buy the book. I was hooked after only reading the first chapter. Not only the story, but Maya Angelou's style of writing gets you hooked. She'll reminisce a certain experience, and put fourth her thoughts and opinions now that she's wiser and more knowledgeable. This is a really interesting and inspiring book that I'm very glad I read because of a moral that it has. It basically says, to me, I can do and overcome any obstacle in my life.

This book is just horrible. NEVER READ IT!!!!!!!! Its that bad. This book just drags on and the chapters just have no impact to the book. Skip it at all costs. Please do not read this book.

Her beautiful use of words make her a great storyteller. I found her way to interchange funny and also moving events intriguing. It was like listening to my grandmother telling tales from her childhood, even that they were completely different, but it took me right back there.
One more story that shows that through or maybe just because of personal struggle often very exceptional people come out of it. Her dignity and integrity as well as her pride are inspiring.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
By Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou had a very interesting life. I chose to read this book because I saw the movie Beauty Shop and heard a lot of her sayings. I was intrigued by them and wanted to learn more about who she was. There were many troubles in her life, but she dealt with them just fine.
There were many important events in her life. Some were happy and some were miserable. When she was little, her parents got divorced and she and her brother had to live with their grandmother. Their grandmother was very religious and strict. Maya learned to respect god, others, and herself, and she also learned proper manners. But when Maya was about seven years old, her father lived with her, her brother, her grandmother, and her uncle until he could take them to see their mother. "How are you going to feel seeing your mother? Going to be happy?" He was asking Bailey (pg. 48).
Maya and her brother, Bailey, were in St. Louis with their mother, their other uncles, and their other grandmother. After a while, Mother got a boyfriend named Mr. Freeman. He seemed nice and quiet but Maya found out about him the hard way. He raped her several times when she was eight. When Mother found out, she took him to court. Maya had to testify, but Mr. Freeman was released before he could serve his time in jail. "Marguerite, answer the question. Did the accused touch you before the occasion on which you claimed that he raped you (pg. 71)?" He was found dead the next morning in the street. Mother decided that she wanted Bailey and Maya to be away from all of that madness. They moved back to Stamps, Arkansas with their grandmother.
When they moved back, Maya would not talk at all. "The only thing I could do was to stop talking to people other than Bailey (pg. 73). She felt miserable and alone and just wanted to die. But she lived through it and started talking to people again. She made a best friend, had a crush, and even graduated from eighth grade. Maya got was only thirteen when she got her diploma from preparatory school. She was an extremely smart student and got moved up a grade. Then she had to go live with her mother again. But Mother moved to San Francisco, California. She did great in school and had wonderful grades by the end of the year. During the summer, she went to live with her father and his girlfriend, Dolores, by the border of Mexico. That was when more trouble started brewing.
One morning, when she was fifteen, her father decided to take her to Mexico with him to get some ingredients for dinner - he was a chef. They left Dolores at home and drove to the border. He and the guard knew each other and were drinking together. When he finally drove off across the border, he drunkenly told the guard he cold marry Maya (in fluent Spanish). "Dad still had the bottle but it was only half full. He asked the guard if he would like to marry me (pg.196)." They drove off to a bar and enjoyed a party there. Then Dad went off with his Mexican women and left Maya in the bar. When he got back, he was drunk and put in the back seat of the car. Maya drove him home. She got to the gate with out a scratch on the car, even though she didn't know how to drive. The guard let her through but once she got going, she crashed into the car that was on the other side of the gate. Dad was woken up and he explained what was happening. They accepted his apologies and he drove back to his trailer.
When they got there, Dolores was waiting inside on the couch in the same place where she was when they left. Maya went to her room but could hear the two of them fighting. Dad left and went to his neighbor's trailer. Maya went into the room where Dolores was to try to comfort her, but Dolores called her mother a whore - that was the last straw for Maya. She slapped Dolores across the face. Dolores then grabbed her and slashed her waist. Maya ran to safety in her dad's truck while Dad's crazy girlfriend was screaming and chasing after her with a hammer. Dad came out of his neighbor's, calmed his girlfriend down, and checked up on Maya. At first he yelled at her, but then realized she was bleeding terribly. "His hand showed red in the porch's cast-off light. `What is this Marguerite?' I said with a coldness that would have done him proud, `I've been cut.' (pg.210)" He then took her took his friend's house. His wife was a nurse and she fixed Maya up with a big band-aid. Dad then took Maya too another friends trailer for her to stay the night there. He checked on her the next morning but then left again. Maya packed food and decided that she didn't want to be with her father anymore, so she stepped outside and began her junkyard journey.
Maya chose an old junkyard that didn't look tended to or bothered. She chose the best and most comfortable car that was there to sleep in. The next morning eyes were peering in on her from the windows. They were kids her age. Their leader laid down some basic rules and let her stay for a month. They always entered in dance contests to earn money. She and her partner actually won. Finally, Maya decided to go live with her mother again. "I telephoned mother (her voice reminded me of another world) and asked her to send for me (pg. 216)."
When she got back to San Francisco, everything had changed. Bailey was with a group of slick street boys and learned how to use slang words. He also moved out on his own, and Maya missed him a lot. Maya thought that she seemed a lot older. She even got a job. It was hard for her because she was black, but she kept trying and she got it. "I was given blood tests, aptitude tests, physical coordination tests, and Rorschachs, then on a blissful day I was hired as the first Negro on the San Francisco streetcars (pg.229)." She also did well in school and read a lot. But, one day she started to read a book about Lesbians.
Maya started to wonder whether she was a lesbian because she hadn't developed yet, even though she was sixteen. She chose to find out if she was straight or not. So, she had sex with a boy that lived up the street from her. A while after, she was feeling sick and realized that she was pregnant. Maya didn't tell Mother or her new stepfather, Daddy Clidell, that she was going to have a baby until three weeks before she was due. Maya only told Bailey and the boy. The boy stopped speaking to her. She had a son right after she got her high school diploma - she was a few years ahead. When she saw him, she was afraid to hold him and drop him, but still loved him. "Just as gratefulness was confused in my mind with love, so possession became mixed up with motherhood. I had a baby. He was beautiful and mine (pg. 245)."
Maya Angelou learned a lot about herself. She learned how ignorant she was when she was little and how aware she became when she was grown. She learned that people and the world can be cruel sometimes. But she knows now that you have to stand up for your rights, be strong, be observant, and deal with all of the misfortunes that come your way. Most importantly, she knows that you should deal with your troubles and try to survive.

By S.R.S.(Bear)

Our english class made this work required reading and the subject of a large literary criticism essay assignment. From the first, the book seems to lack direction and a point. Supposedly this is explained by the fact that it's an autobiography and that Maya is still 'finding herself' and unsure as to where her life is headed at the time. These claims, from my perspective, amount to nothing more than meager excuses for a poor story. One might expect such a revered poet as Maya Angelou to write a brilliant work of literature that would have direction and a driving point to it, and still be at least an interesting read. My expectations in these areas were not met: the story jumps around, seemingly lacking any concrete direction or logical order. It seems as if each chapter is its own individual and seperate story, and these seperate stories have simply been thrown together and called a book. That would still all be well and good, if there was even the slightest difference in message between each story. Instead, the constant theme of racial prejudice and how horrible it is to be a black girl in the 1940s is drilled into your mind over and over and over and over again. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but after being told something 17 times, I don't need to hear it another 16. I know some of you enjoyed this book, and find that it speaks volumes about the human condition and all that... Call me blind, but I just don't see it. If I were you, I'd save my money and pick a different book.

I'm sorry, but I found this book to be boring and hard to believe. Much of the time Maya appears to be over-stating her point and the events surrounding her life. I did not finish the book.

I know that Maya is a revered poet, as she should be. But this book does not do her justice.

This book is our class's GCSE Novel and i am glad it was as it is an interesting piece and not only did it tell us of one womans stuggle, but it taught us the true extent of the trouble the blacks went through. This book shows one woman come up against everthing bad and cope. Maya Angelou should be an inspiration to all young woman who are trying to make it alone in the world.