When I finished the book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou, I was left thinking about it for the next few days. To be completely honest, I can’t even tell if I liked it or not! I liked some parts, extremely disliked others, and while reading other parts, I wasn’t really impressed or annoyed.
To give a quick summary of the book, it is about a young girl and her brother Bailey’s life and how she overcame some of her obstacles. She and Bailey Jr. don’t really have a stable family. Throughout the story, they get bounced around at least four times to different parts of their family. In the beginning and middle of the story they live with their grandma and Uncle Will. Then they go to live with their mother, then to their father, then back to their grandmother.This is something that made the story a bit confusing, since sometimes the author didn’t elaborate enough on whose house they were in, or even simply where they were and when.
Another obstacle is that Maya is black, and the setting is during a time of segregation om the South. I found it interesting that this is actually an autobiography of the author’s life. Maya Angelou includes events from her own childhood. I learned so much, not just about Ms. Angelou, but also about U.S. history.
Just to give you a heads up, there was a small amount of slightly inappropriate content towards the middle of it, but, other than that, the book wasn’t too mature.
I would rate this book three out of five stars. As I said in the beginning, I can’t really decide if I liked it or not. I would definitely recommend it to others though, because others might like it. Go try it! Enjoy!