HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya…
Loading...

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (original 1969; edition 1983)

by Maya Angelou

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
14,712222378 (4.02)1 / 560
Biography & Autobiography. African American Nonfiction. Nonfiction. HTML:Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.
 
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.
 
Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin.
… (more)
Member:knittlesticks
Title:I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Authors:Maya Angelou
Info:Bantam (1983), Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:*****
Tags:None

Work Information

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969)

Florida (25)
My TBR (108)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

» See also 560 mentions

English (213)  Italian (2)  French (2)  Catalan (1)  Spanish (1)  All languages (219)
Showing 1-5 of 213 (next | show all)
It was an interesting read, not what I thought it would be, and not as compelling as I’d presumed based on what I’d heard about it.

Well-written but a little too rambling and untethered to any kind of compelling story. As it’s not a story, but a person remembering their life, in their own words, I guess that is to be expected. ( )
  73pctGeek | Mar 5, 2024 |
A powerful autobiography by one of America's true icons. ( )
  ben_r47 | Feb 22, 2024 |
Beautiful and lyrical and not at all expected grateful to have missed it as a requirement in highschool and to have the opportunity now. Something every woman should read. ( )
  Blanket_Dragon | Jan 23, 2024 |
She kinda just talks about little things she would do as a kid growing up. Makes me wonder if she smoked weed? And she starts to write these big paragraphs towards the end of the book. I don't have much interest in the things I do. She kinda had a repressed childhood high in the racist South and it kinda waned and became bored & weird once she attended High School in San Francisco. It almost kinda reminds me of my grown upbringing but 60 years later? "Its a Small World After All":)

It's not really quite a journal but more like message board postings of little anecdotes the style she wrote it in like she has her own forum. ( )
  VidKid369 | Dec 19, 2023 |
A classic in American literature, one I first read years ago as a freshman in high school. I remember appreciating it then, but thinking it was a bit boring (a 14-year-old's opinion, on a book being taught in high school English class). Re-reading gave me a much better appreciation of it, and of Angelou as a writer.

The story meanders a bit, but ultimately heads us in a single direction. And during that meandering Angelou shows us what an exceptional writer she is and her ability to write different styles of story. (One of the chapters is basically a ghost story.)

As I got towards the end of the book, I began to see what 14-year-old me was thinking, in that it slows down a bit, and it took me a while to get through the last 100 pages. But overall a really good book by an American icon. ( )
  rumbledethumps | Nov 25, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 213 (next | show all)

» Add other authors (20 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Angelou, Mayaprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Cantarelli, Maria LuisaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Winfrey, OprahForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Belongs to Series

Is contained in

Has the adaptation

Is abridged in

Has as a study

Has as a commentary on the text

Has as a student's study guide

Has as a teacher's guide

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my son
Guy Johnson,
and all the strong black birds of promise who defy the odds and gods and sing their songs
First words
What you looking at me for?
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC
Biography & Autobiography. African American Nonfiction. Nonfiction. HTML:Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.
 
Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned.
 
Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
James Baldwin Writes:

This testimony from a Black sister marks the beginning of a new era in the minds and hearts and lives of all Black men and women...
I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity. I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not since the days of my childhood, when the people in books were more real than the people one saw every day, have I found myself so moved ...
her portrait is a Biblical study of life in the midst of death."

The Moving and Beautiful autobiography of a talented black woman. She continues her story in gather together in GATHER TOGETHER IN MY NAME, SINGIN' AND SWINGIN' AND GETTIN' MERRY LIKE CHRISTMAS and THE HEART OF A WOMAN.
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.02)
0.5 6
1 42
1.5 8
2 107
2.5 17
3 466
3.5 101
4 1166
4.5 101
5 935

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,228,254 books! | Top bar: Always visible