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Summary: Beautiful!
Review: Shame on those in Maryland who wanted to ban this amazing work for being 'racist'. Anything dealing with the experience of a black child in the South in the 30's and 40's is necessarily going to be 'racial'. The message of this book is not one of racism, but one of personal strength, integrity, inspiration and fortitude. Everyone should be required to read this book!
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Summary: Memorable Indeed
Review: This book still lives in my memory although I read it years ago. The scenes it evoked recalled many memories of the years I spent in the South when I was a child.
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Summary: Maya Angelou's is an excalent writer.
Review: I picked up this book just to do a report. I thought I would just skan through it and write a few things down. Once I got started reading I could not stop. Maya Angelou's words have such feeling that they reach out and capture a person's soul.
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Summary: Excellent Book
Review: A very compelling, beautifully written piece. One of Angelou's best.
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Summary: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Marty Stephens
Review: Although I'm caucasion, I was able to relate to many of the experiences that Maya describes in her book; it's more than the Negro experience in the racist South during the depression of the 30's and early 40's, it's about the tenacity one must adhere to in order to overcome the myriad of obstacles that one endures during a lifetime. It's about finding your voice, and then using it effectively. What makes Maya Angelou's book so poignant is her honest narrative as she journeys back to the little town of Stamps, Arkansas. The reader is almost immediately pulled in to the story because we can simply share in her episodic adventures: Growing up with "Momma", who is really her grandmother, and a very strict and dedicated Christian woman who doesn't waver from the God's will nor his ten commandments; she deals with an inspiring school teacher who serves as a springboard for Maya's eventual success as a person and writer; Maya also deals with the inequality of the races, the blatant disrespect by the white people, and the mixed feelings she experiences due to her parents uninvolvement with her and her brother, Baily.
Maya Angelou is honest and straight forward with her language. This book is clearly one of the best books I've ever read. You have no choice but to be moved. There is something for everyone is this masterpiece. We all want to feel connected, to become a part of the story, if you will, and this book does just that. Maya Angelou is truly gifted as a writer, and we're lucky that a woman named Mrs. Flowers tapped into Maya's talents and encouraged her to expose it. The end result has been an eternal gift for all of us to share.
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Summary: Race, gender, childhood ...but mostly HOPE
Review: This is one beautiful memoir, standing tall above the multitudes which dwell on self-pity or obsessive self-interest. Angelou tells of her life in such a lyrical, affirming way that she speaks to the potential humanity in everybody. Her survival, despite tough challenges, is really about the survival of anybody who has had an inner self yearning to cry out, "I matter!" This book is about feeling and healing the emotional wounds of racism, to be sure. But it is also about transcending that pain, drawing from it deeper levels of meaning about being truly human and truly alive. Or, as Angelou recalls her mother saying abuot the perversity of life, "in the struggle lies the joy." One enjoyable feature of this book is that many of the chapters "stand alone" as self-contained stories in their own right. There is a recollection of a night listening to Joe Louis squaring off with a white contender, with blacks feeling the hopes of their people alternatively sinking and rising with punches taken and punches delivered. In another chapter, Angelou vividly outlines a child's on-target perception of a religious revival as nothing more than a vehicle for adult retribution fantasies. Sometimes, chapters focus on simple yet eternal truths, like the one which tells of the insidioius pull which a ghost story can have on a child's imagination. Even so, the sum is greater than the total of the parts, as each recollection somehow moves the ongoing journey of self-discovery along. Angelou also abounds with delightful metaphors, introducing such expressions as "harmony packed tight as sardines," and giggles that "hung in the air like melting clouds." Anyone who simply enjoys the creative ways in which words can take us back to the unvarnished center of human experience will find much to admire here. Having read this first installment of a multi-part autobiography, the reader will look forward to reading the subsequent works. Angelou is telling her story in the best way possible -- how she liberated that part of her self that speaks and breathes and lives for ALL of us. What a great poet she is! May her words continue to inspire and affirm for a long, long time.
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Summary: THIS BOOK IS THE BEST
Review: THE BOOK IS VERY GOOD AND IT DEALS WITH TOPICS PRVIOUSLY UNDISCUSSED IN MOST (AUTO)BIOGRAPHIES, ANGELOU ADDRESSES THINGS UNKNOWN TO MOST COMMON PEOPLE
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Summary: Hope is a great thing!!
Review: I know why the caged bird sings is a story of hope. Marguerite goes from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware.This book shows us how we can be blind to the outside world. It is about Marguerite's triumph to be recognised in a world where blacks are no more than cotton pickers. She goes from an innocent little girl to an experienced woman who has the world under her belt.
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Summary: An exciting work, filled with exceptional detail.
Review: This book was required reading for my Pre-International Baccalaureate English class. It gave a great deal of detail about what the life of any Black American in the south is like, and I recommend this novel to anyone curious as to how it was growing up a black female in the south
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Summary: An entrancing tale of a woman's life
Review: Maya Angelou is a wonderful writer. I got so caught up in her book, that when it was done I was not ready to put it down. I shared with her all her griefs and sorrows, her joys and triumphs as I read. And I know I will never forget what this book did to me. I feel it made me an enlightened person. I also know for sure that I will be reading more of Ms. Angelou's books. My one problem is that the story never finished. I reached the last page and couldn't see where the story ended. It was like she had been interrupted while writing. My greatest pleasure would be to meet Ms. Angelou
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