Books by Maya Angelou

“This book describes her childhood, growing up in Stamps, Arkansas. She and her brother arrive at the house of their grandmother, having been dispatched by their own father and mother. The threat of racial violence is always present, and her increasing awareness of that as she grows older. At the centre of it is a rape: she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend at eight years old. Her voice is right there, all the time, so strong through it all. And she has wonderfully lyrical descriptions of the American south, of San Francisco or family picnics, totally evocative. Even in these moments of lyricism, the voice never slips.” Read more...

Memoirs of Girlhood

Tyler Wetherall, Memoirist

This is the first in a seven-volume series of autobiographical works by the author and activist, Maya Angelou. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings covers the first 17 years of her life, up to the birth of her first child, including the extreme poverty and racism she experienced in small-town Arkansas, and her rape at the age of eight by her mother’s lover. Though it should be bleak, Angelou’s lyrical and crystalline prose tells a story of triumph over adversity, and is rightly considered a modern classic.

From our article Books like Educated

“A special edition of the the moving and empowering poem by Maya Angelou with illustrations by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.” Read more...

Books on Black Icons for Children

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