The traumatised Angelou proves too much for her mother and St Louis family to handle, so she and Bailey are sent back to Stamps. This horrifying event has ongoing ramifications throughout her young life (obviously). There, aged just eight years, Maya is sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend. Several years later, Angelou’s father unexpectedly appears and takes the children to live with their mother in St Louis. She and her older brother, Bailey, were abandoned by their parents and sent to live with their grandmother (whom they call Momma) in Stamps, Arkansas. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings traces Angelou’s life from age three to seventeen, artfully recreating the perspective of the child while retaining the wisdom of the adult narrator.

If I had my time again, I’d prioritise that over prettiness. (And you should know why using an affiliate link on this page is awesome: I’ll earn a small commission, which will make my heart sing!)īy the way, a note on choosing your edition: mine is gorgeous, but it doesn’t have the foreword by Oprah. And was a real original.Get I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings here. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY

'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace. ' I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity' JAMES BALDWIN

As a Black woman she has known discrimination, violence and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. Loving the world, she also knows its cruelty. In this first volume of her seven books of autobiography, Maya Angelou beautifully evokes her childhood with her grandmother in the American south of the 1930s. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again' Maya Angelou 'I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it's like to be a human being. The international classic and bestseller, Maya Angelou's memoir paints a portrait of 'a brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' (BARACK OBAMA).

From i know why the caged bird sings