Reminiscent of a Favorite

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

This was one of the books we chose to put on the list in our Banned Books Unit at school. I had never read it, so I ordered it. Strangely, none of my students chose it. Because of this, I wasn't in too big a hurry to get to it. Then the pile of unread books on my coffee table started to get too big and this was on top, so...

The first half of this book reminded me so much of Mildred Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, which is one of my very favorite books, and the one that made me want to be an English teacher. Maya/Marguerite reminded me so much of Cassie Logan that I couldn't help but love her. Despite the horrible things that happened to her in St. Louis, I was strangely drawn to Maya/Marguerite.

Then her grandmother, Momma, sent her to California to her parents, and reading became like pulling teeth. There were unnecessary stories, secondhand from Maya's stepfather that could have saved me several pages. Basically, California took the Maya I loved away. It ended up being a relief to finish, which is sad, considering the first 2/3.

I feel I should touch on the incident for which this book is most often challenged: the rape of Maya/Marguerite when she is eight by the man her mother was living with. Yes, it was a horrible situation. Yes, it should never have happened. Yes, it made me angry, but it was not graphic. It's a sad part of life for a lot of people, and by challenging/banning this book, we are taking a valuable learning opportunity away from students. Besides, students see and hear worse on network television these days, so why is it appropriate for them to see it on tv but not read about it in a book?

All in all, this was a decent book. Would I read it again, probably not, but I would not dissuade someone from reading it.