Reviews

My first reaction when I finished the book was “no!! i want to know what happened next!!!”

maya was such a curious and insightful child I loved these stories.

morganbrooke's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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shinysarah28's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring medium-paced

4.25

ela_lee_'s review against another edition

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3.0

2.5 stars rounded up to 3. This classic had been on my list for a long while, and I figured it was about time I should read it. Right away, it felt like the dry, stereotypical reading material that’s assigned throughout high school. I think there are more interesting social justice books out there for students, especially now a days.

Of course, Maya Angelou has a powerful story to tell, it’s just written in a more traditional way that I didn’t find super intriguing. Along with suffering racial injustices throughout her childhood, I had no idea she became a teen mom (the first time she ever had sex!) and didn’t realize she was pregnant until she was about due. This book covers Angelou's childhood and family life; I assume her other books discuss life into her adult years.

[In reference to the symbolically black vs white World Championship Heavyweight boxing match]"It wouldn’t do for a black man and his family to be caught on the lonely, country road on a night when Joe Louis had proved that we were the strongest people in the world."

"Uncle Willy muttered, 'They don’t really hate us, they don’t know us. How can they hate us? They’re mostly scared.'"

maddb_96's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring tense fast-paced

3.5

Enjoyed the last quarter of the book the most. I felt that certain chapters did not need to be as long as they were, like the church sermons for example.

eatingbrains's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

Difficult to read, but in the way that it challenges how you think about things.

In particular this made me consider the times it took place during, the "good ole days" and how shitty they were for a lot people. I make it a habit to not read much about a book before I pick it up to give everything a fair chance and the reason why I picked those one up was because I saw it on a list of commonly banned books. While it contains some mature(-ish) content, it is much tamer than many things I read as a youth and the value of showing other-ing on a personal degree is unmatched.

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