Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird
I Know Why the Caged Bird sings is the autobiography of Maya Angelou. She tells of the hardships she experienced in her youth, beginning with her parents' divorce when Angelou was only three years old. As a result of the divorce, Maya and her older brother are sent to live with their grandmother in a small, Arkansas town. Here, she experiences the horrors of racism and learns to hate herself for not being white. When she is eight, Maya goes to live with her mother in St. Louis. There, she is sexually abused by her mother's live-in boyfriend, and is emotionally scarred by the terrible experience. Finally, after Maya has become aware of racial prejudice and religious hypocrisy, she begins to find her voice. Maya's mother marries a man who proves to be a positive father figure, and the family moves to Los Angeles. Here, Maya spends her teenage years being defiant and getting herself into a lot of trouble. When she becomes pregnant in her senior year of high school, however, she gains the confidence to become a strong woman and a good mother to her child.
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Maya Angelou's autobiography is an honest and gripping story of her early life as a poor, black girl of the rural South in the 1920's.
She is abandoned by her parents to be raised along with her brother by relatives, only to have her mother and father each drift back into her life later on. She details the hardships faced including racism, sexual molestation, poverty and ignorance. Her reunion with her mother in St Louis disrupts her young life with tragic results as she is molested by a family friend. Eventually she winds up in San Francisco and at one point runs away and lives on the street and in cars. She perserveres to complete high school and work toward a productive
future."
This is the autobiography of Maya Angelou's harsh and unpleasant childhood. She and her brother were shuttled from relatives in the dirt poor rural south to then live for a time in St. Louis with their pretty but irresponsible mother. Eventually they met their father. The book shows the ignorance and prejudice of both black and white people in the 30's and 40's. In St. Louis, Maya is molested as a young girl by an acquaintance of her mother. In California, she becomes a delinquent and lives on the streets and in abandoned cars while in her teens. By the time she is in high school she has become pregnant with a child.
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (1960)
A true story about a young American Indian girl left behind by her people when they move from their remote island home to the mainland. This subdued book is about how she survives alone for years, but of all her survival skills, the most important thing she learns is how to cope with loneliness.When I say it is true, I mean the bare bones of the story are true. For when The Lost Woman of San Nicolas, as she became known, was finally rescued after eighteen years, she could speak only in sign language. All her own people had long since disappeared. This story, then, written as though she is telling us in her own words, owes a lot to the writer's imagination. There is an Author's Note at the back of the book to tell you the true facts about this story. Karana's tribe number more than forty when this story begins, and they live quite comfortably on a small island. They forage for their food, mainly from the sea, but also roots and seeds from the land. Occasionally they are visited by hunters from the far north, (the Aleutian Islands of Alaska), who come to camp on their island for a few weeks and hunt the sea otter for their pelts. This is where the disaster begins, for the hunters deal unfairly with the islanders and in the ensuing battle most of the menfolk of the tribe are wiped out. After that there really are not enough people left to live successfully on the island, to share the work load, and so one man is sent to fetch help. Eventually, a ship comes to take everyone away to the mainland. Things would have gone differently if only Karana's young brother, Ramo, had not forgotten his fishing spear and gone back to fetch it. The rest of the tribe, including Karana, board the ship in bad weather and rising seas. In an astonishing act of bravery, when Karana looks back to the cliff to see Ramo left behind, she jumps overboard and swims back to him. Thus, there are two left behind when the ship sails.Now, although they are alone, these two children are at home, and they are perfectly well able to feed themselves. They simply continue foraging, mainly for abalone fish. At first, of course, they expect the ship to come back to pick them up, and every day they look out for it on the horizon. It may be home, but it is dangerous. The island is roamed by a pack of wild dogs, there are poisonous and paralyzing fish in the sea, and a huge herd of sea elephants on the shore. Ramo does not survive for long, and after that Karana is alone with the empty, whispering huts of her village.
Maya Angelou's autobiography is an honest and gripping story of her early life as a poor, black girl of the rural South in the 1920's.
She is abandoned by her parents to be raised along with her brother by relatives, only to have her mother and father each drift back into her life later on. She details the hardships faced including racism, sexual molestation, poverty and ignorance. Her reunion with her mother in St Louis disrupts her young life with tragic results as she is molested by a family friend. Eventually she winds up in San Francisco and at one point runs away and lives on the street and in cars. She perserveres to complete high school and work toward a productive
future."
This is the autobiography of Maya Angelou's harsh and unpleasant childhood. She and her brother were shuttled from relatives in the dirt poor rural south to then live for a time in St. Louis with their pretty but irresponsible mother. Eventually they met their father. The book shows the ignorance and prejudice of both black and white people in the 30's and 40's. In St. Louis, Maya is molested as a young girl by an acquaintance of her mother. In California, she becomes a delinquent and lives on the streets and in abandoned cars while in her teens. By the time she is in high school she has become pregnant with a child.
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (1960)
A true story about a young American Indian girl left behind by her people when they move from their remote island home to the mainland. This subdued book is about how she survives alone for years, but of all her survival skills, the most important thing she learns is how to cope with loneliness.When I say it is true, I mean the bare bones of the story are true. For when The Lost Woman of San Nicolas, as she became known, was finally rescued after eighteen years, she could speak only in sign language. All her own people had long since disappeared. This story, then, written as though she is telling us in her own words, owes a lot to the writer's imagination. There is an Author's Note at the back of the book to tell you the true facts about this story. Karana's tribe number more than forty when this story begins, and they live quite comfortably on a small island. They forage for their food, mainly from the sea, but also roots and seeds from the land. Occasionally they are visited by hunters from the far north, (the Aleutian Islands of Alaska), who come to camp on their island for a few weeks and hunt the sea otter for their pelts. This is where the disaster begins, for the hunters deal unfairly with the islanders and in the ensuing battle most of the menfolk of the tribe are wiped out. After that there really are not enough people left to live successfully on the island, to share the work load, and so one man is sent to fetch help. Eventually, a ship comes to take everyone away to the mainland. Things would have gone differently if only Karana's young brother, Ramo, had not forgotten his fishing spear and gone back to fetch it. The rest of the tribe, including Karana, board the ship in bad weather and rising seas. In an astonishing act of bravery, when Karana looks back to the cliff to see Ramo left behind, she jumps overboard and swims back to him. Thus, there are two left behind when the ship sails.Now, although they are alone, these two children are at home, and they are perfectly well able to feed themselves. They simply continue foraging, mainly for abalone fish. At first, of course, they expect the ship to come back to pick them up, and every day they look out for it on the horizon. It may be home, but it is dangerous. The island is roamed by a pack of wild dogs, there are poisonous and paralyzing fish in the sea, and a huge herd of sea elephants on the shore. Ramo does not survive for long, and after that Karana is alone with the empty, whispering huts of her village.