I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

This autobiography follows the life of Maya, an eight-year-old African-American girl. The story is a tragic but also hopeful story set in the 1930s and 1940s, before the Civil Rights Movement. Maya struggles with the color of her skin because of others’ racism towards her, and is also raped later on in the story. The story follows the young girl as she grows up learning how to have a better strength in character and how to find hope in literature. The autobiography was originally published in 1969, and is the first of seven volumes following American Poet Laureate Maya Angelou’s life.