I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age–and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.

Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a modern American classic that will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014







Stichley's Rating:
I decided to do this book after the death of Maya Angelou, though by time it posts in the order on the blog schedule it will have been roughly a month from her death.  I read this book when I was about 13 years old, and personally I was too young to have read it, but it profoundly touched my life.  This is a book that I don't even really know how to describe.  It's summary doesn't do it justice, but I know I could not. 
So what age group should be appropriate to read this book?  This is something I struggled with on determining for this blog. I don't believe it is a book that should be read by children.  "Although Caged Bird has generated a substantial body of criticism and found a solid place in the humanitarian curriculum, it is not a book that has been received without controversy."  This book has been one of the most frequent books targeted from exclusion from high school and junior high school libraries (page 5; Braxton,1999).  It is so for multiple reasons but primarily for the the fact that includes details about a rape that occurred to Maya as a child.  So for this reason I have given it a PG-13.  It is a singularly unique book that shows a side of this nation and people that so many of us will never experience or imagine, but at the same time it is to only be read by those who are ready to face the less and less obscure darker side of our world.

Instances of Swearing:

• Hell: 9
• Ass: 1
• Bitch: 4
• Shit: 3
• Damn: 6
• God: 38, but the most are in the appropriate context
• Christ: 3
• Negro/Nigger: 65 
• Sexual terms: 18