pages: 304
Published: 1969
Despite all the accolades showered on her, Maya Angelou has often been on the Challenged and Banned Books lists. She is ranked 8th in the American Library Association List of “Top Ten Challenged Authors 1990 to 2004” (out of 8,332 challenges reported to the Office for Intellectual Freedom. See link below.) Some of these books are challenged because of their presence on school library book shelves, and others because they have been assigned as required reading in the curriculum.
"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. "
David Fletcher, Resident Scholar
How I would use it in a classroom
This book has so many themes in it that it would fit into a lot of unit plans. It is smart, coming of age, historical memoir. It would good to practice memoir making in line with this book.
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