Rating: 
Summary: Kind of Sad
Review: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography of Maya Angelou. Maya's real name is Marguerite, but her brother, Bailey, nick named her Maya. Early in their lives they were sent to their grandmother's house to live, in Stamps, Arkansas. Their parents could not handle the kids. Their grandmother owned a store in a black community. Maya loved her brother very much. She was proud of everything he did and she told everything to her brother. Bailey was a very smart boy who was good at almost anything. They lived in a time where white people still ruled the land. Although they lived in a black community and rarely saw very many white people, Maya and Bailey were still constantly reminded that it was white that ruled the land. One day their came a surprise visit from their father. While staying with their mother Maya had some terrible hardships. She was raped by Mr. Freeman, a man that was often around the house. After Bailey finally got Maya to tell who it was that raped her the man was sent to court. He was released quickly but the next day he was found dead. Maya thought this was her fault. While in court she lied and said this was the first time Mr. Freeman had tried to touch her. Since she lied Mr. Freeman got killed. She figured that if she opens her mouth again to other people more evil come. She then refuses to speak to any one except for Bailey who she still trust with all her heart. Their parents again find that they cannot deal with these children. They send them back to Stamps with their grandmother again. This made Maya sad again because Bailey had grown to like their mother and he was sad they had to leave. Maya thinks that it is her fault that they cannot stay with their mother. Maya continues to have hardships in her life. In the beginning Maya was an innocent little girl. She loved her brother more than anything and she loved being with him. She lived a fun joyful life with lots of fun and play. In the end of the book she is very changed. She now has a very grown up mind. She has had things done to her that an eight year old never should experience. She has gone through hard time after hard time. She still loves being with her brother Bailey. She wants the very best for him no matter what he does. Many things influenced these changes in Maya. She was raped. That began many of the problems she had in life. This killed her self- esteem for a long time. Being with her brother was one of the only things that kept her alive and from going completely mad.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not worthy!
Review: This is one of the best books that I ever read. It was a required book in the tenth grade, and I have to thank the person who made that decision. Maya's life, though riddled with the trails and tribulations of a little girl in a broken home,was one of the most endearing stories I have ever let my eyes scan. The way she entices the reader to cheer along to the Joe Louis fight, or cry when she is "mishandled" by a family friend. Her writing just swallows you up, it's easy to read and helps to form the pictures in your mind. I've read this book four times, it's a keeper. I can't praise it enough.
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Summary: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Review: Bagna Braestrup 5/15/00 English 8W I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings My name is Bagna and I am currently in 8th grade. As an assignment for my English class I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Dr. Maya Angelou. While reading this book, I experienced a lot of different emotions such as happiness, sadness, and anger. It was hard to believe how horrible life was for the black people. Dr. Maya Angelou talked about all the terrible events that happened in her life and transfered her feelings into her writing. Many of them took courage to write about. While reading this book I was additionally reading To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings described the Blacks' perspective on life during that era. To Kill a Mockingbird was written from a white persons point of view. Because it was written from the point of view of a white man, the Blacks in the story do not seem individual, they were portrayed as a group seemed to possess the same traits. It was the contrary in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. The lifestyles of the two races, were very different. The grammar each race used was dissimilar, the Whites being more educated. By contrasting the two books, I can see how the Whites and the Blacks lived in two different worlds, one of luxuries and the other of necessities. The diction Dr. Maya Angelou uses to describe the setting with is fitting to the story line. Her knowledge is shown in her style, by the way she writes so articulately. It shows her education compared to the schooling of the other Blacks. One sentence in the book genuinely shows this: "My relief melted the fears and they liquidly stole down my face." This sentence is describing her crying out of relief. The way in which she words it is truly beautiful. There were points in the book that were tiring because the author kept describing everyday events that were irrelevant to the story. Dr. Angelou talked about living in a town called Stamps longer than necessary. This book was very good. I would certainly recommend this book to a friend. The events are described in such a way that the reader can not put the book down. The author apparently is very scholarly, and can tell her story in a very admirable way.
Rating:
Summary: An incredible book!
Review: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, was one of the most touching books that I have ever read in my fourteen years of life. While reading To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, in my eighth grade English class, we were assigned to read an independent reading book on a similar topic. "For the first semester, I was one of three black students in the school, and in that rarefied atmosphere I came to love my people more. Mornings as the streetcar traversed my ghetto I experienced a mixture of dread and trauma. I knew that all too soon we would be out of my familiar setting, and Blacks who were on the streetcar when I got on would all be gone and I alone would face forty blocks of neat streets, smooth lawns, white houses, and rich children." As a white female reader, I found Maya Angelou's views very interesting and different from what I had expected. Her point of view helped me to understand her and her feelings even more deeply than I already did. It also helped me to understand the contrast between the races at the time. "I guess it ain't your fault if Uncle Atticus is a n----r-lover besides, but I'm here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family-" says one of the white main character's cousins in To Kill A Mockingbird. Both books portray racism in America in the earlier part of the twentieth century and the great similarities and differences between the two races. One of the similarities in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and To Kill A Mockingbird was religion. Religion was a very large factor in both a white and black person's life in the two books. However, while religion was important to the different races, it was for very different reasons. In the African-American community, God was someone to love and praise for his support, love, and care. Church offered a chance to become closer to God and to ask for his love, help, and forgiveness. It was also a place to embrace other people in the community and to help them, too. Unlike the white citizens, the blacks go to great lengths to be at a place of worship. For example, in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, a black couple exhausted from an almost twelve-hour work day come into Maya Angelou's grandmother's store to buy food. That night at a church gathering, a young Maya elaborates on how she saw the same couple there with their children, full of energy and life as they prayed to God. Another example of love and support in a black church is in To Kill A Mockingbird. While a member of the black community, Tom Robinson, is on trial for a crime he didn't commit, the church members gather together to help him. They start an offering for Tom's wife and children to help support them while he is unable to work. In the white community, church is considered to be more of a social experience. Even though in both books religion is widely discussed and referred to by the white characters, church isn't shown to have any great significance to an individual. Another difference between the two races is their different opinions of God. While the African-Americans love and praise God, the whites see God as an almighty power who one should fear. In both books the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic churches are mentioned, but they are only mentioned in reference to white people and their churches. In the black community there is only one church -- a Christian one. The white churchgoers felt it necessary to differentiate themselves from the rest of the community, even though they were all praying to the same God. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is a wonderfully written book about the experiences of a young African-American woman growing up in a racist society. The reader grows up along with Maya Angelou as she is violated by close friends, betrayed by family, experiences racism, and learns to become independent. It is a wonderfully descriptive and captivating book that should be required to be read by all Americans.
Rating:
Summary: A very powerful book
Review: I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou for my 8th grade English class. In class, we read and analyzed To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee as well. Both of these books were written by women who grew up in the South during the time when white superiority was a common belief. The main character's personalities and lives in their stories closly resemble the authors'. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, black characters are more developed and see white people as rude and repulsive. In To Kill a Mockingbird, white characters are more developed. Black people are seen as criminals with the exception of Scout and her family. Note that in To Kill a Mockingbird the main characters are white. Marguerite, a black girl, (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) spent much of her childhood searching for parent figures, yet her parents didn't provide the love and comfort she dreamed they would give her once she lived with them. Scout, a white girl, (To Kill a Mockingbird) grew up without her mother, but was very close to her father Atticus. Both characters had older brothers who they looked up to and who were important figures in their lives. Society presented challenges for both of them. Marguerite struggled in life because she was resented for being black and because she was a frail, shy, girl. As girls, both characters were expected to be polite, dainty, religious and pretty. Scout and Marguerite were poor and lacked motherly figures so this was hard to achieve. Scout struggled because her father defended black people, which in her town was not traditional. The white people in Scout's town were typically racist and therefore did not support her father's beliefs. Maya Angelou lived a childhood of which I'm most horrified and envious. If I were to live Angelou's childhood I would be too frightened and shy to ever overcome the obstacles she did. She dealt with kinds of harassment as difficult as rape. I've never gone to the dentist and have been told, "I would rather stick my hand in a dog's mouth." I have not grown up being resented or having limited opportunities because of the color of my skin, like Angelou. My society does not criticize my family's beliefs against racism like Lee's society did, yet the events that occurred during their lives were the ones that shaped who they became, strong, wise, persevering women. Angelou understood herself and her world better by age eighteen than many fifty year old people, black or white. Lee learned to ignore other people's thoughts and listen to herself despite everyone else's racist beliefs. I believe that I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings would have had more meaning to me if had experienced rape or any of the other dramatic, life altering events that happened to Angelou. By reading her book and being able to compare it to an unusual white girl's childhood, I felt like I had experienced these events and concepts in depth. I experienced them in a way that didn't harm me, but stregthened my knowledge of those topics.
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Summary: READ MY REVIEW!
Review: The following is a review of Maya Angalou's autobiography, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Read while discussing the great American novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in my eighth grade English class, the assignment was to compare the differences in point of view, between the two authors, Angalou and Lee. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings expresses the opinions of an African-American girl, growing up in the mid 1940's-50's. Throughout her life the girl, Marguerite, finds herself oppressed by different race related issues. As her goals in life change, her points of view fluctuate from highly optimistic and confident, to severe self hatred and depression to the point of wanting to commit suicide. She feels her life to be beyond her control and completely insignificant because she is black. She has accepted racism and feels that things will never change. People like Abraham Lincoln, who try to prevent racism, have just made things worse (in Marguerite's opinion) by presenting the idea of change, and at one point in the story, Marguerite wishes that all people like Lincoln had never been born. She feels defeated and finds little value in life, all because of racism and segregation. This point of view on racism represents that of many African people in the time of this story, while Lee in, To Kill a Mockingbird, expresses an opposite point of view, an optimistic one, where change is something that is on its way and welcomed by the black community. Lee and Angelou are both women, though Lee is white and Angelou is black their stories are similar in many ways (they both involve a rape and map out the story of a girl growing up in racist America), but ware they vary reflects upon their of point of view. Black people have been the victims and Angalou's story illustrates their point of view, while white people have been the cause of the problem and Lee's story narrates from that point of view. This shows how one's interpretation of a situation is a casual factor in ones point of view. Reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings has enlightened me of more racial issues, and beside from gaining a wealth of new vocabulary through reading Angalou's flowery writing, I also enjoyed my self, as Angalou's poetic style is most pleasing and intriguing.
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Summary: compared to To Kill a Mockingbird.....
Review: Our 8th grade English class was required to pick an independent reading book. I picked I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou. At the same time, my class was reading To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is similar to To Kill A Mockingbird in many ways. Both books portray a girl and her brother growing up in a Southern town. The main character represents the author as a young girl learning about prejudice and the hardships of life. Both authors express their views and opinions through the main character. The key difference between the two books is "as simple as black and white." Maya is black and sees the whites as a group of prejudiced rich people. Scout is white and sees how her classmates and her town is prejudiced against Tom Robinson and other blacks. An interesting observation that I made was that although both books are against prejudice, both authors are partly prejudiced themselves. Maya Angelou seems to see all whites as evil and prejudiced, while Harper Lee shows kind whites like Atticus. Lee makes the blacks seem accepting of prejudice and docile while Angelou sees blacks as people who are very aware of their situation and rebel against prejudice as often as possible. I think that each of these books only show half the story. To get a complete picture of growing up in a racist town you have to read them both.
Rating: 
Summary: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Review: I liked this book so much I read it twice. It shows a life style that I never thought really existed. It is very personal although still entertaining at the same time. The insight given is so real. The Maya Angelou goes into great detail about every situation each pertson is put in. If you enjoy reading about life in the midst of death you will love this book. By the end of it you will have a new out look on your life. When you think it is at its worst it can always get worse and it does. To read this book takes strength. You are forced to face a part of reality every one tries to hind. Maya Angelou wraps her reader in and keeps them in suspense. I really enjoyed this book and would read it again. Try and see how much you know about reality and read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Every young person should read this
Review: This was an extraordinary book filled with stories like the ones my grandmother has told me. The struggles of a Black woman both in the south and north. It made me feel like I was right there with her going through it all and hoping she'd pull out ok. Ms. Angelo's style of writing made it interesting and colorful. I'd recommend this book to the younger crowd, showing them the struggle - that nothing came easy for her, but she never quit.
Rating: 
Summary: For Student Use
Review: I am high school student. I had a very hard time reading this book. I know many people say that it is great, but I would not suggest reading this for student use. Some of the book was great but most of the time it lost me. This is a book I would read when I am an adult but not now. It is too complicated for me and not something I would read everyday. However I did learn a few things about what Maya Angelou life is about and I think she is a most interesting person to read about.
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