I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Title: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Author: Maya Angelou
ISBN: 0-553-380001-X
Recommended Grade Level of Reader: 10th and Up
Publisher: Bantam Books
Media Type: Book
Copyright: 1970
Genre: Memoir

Reader's Annotation: An autobiographical account of a New York Times Best Selling author and world renowned poet. Maya Angelou's humor and sincerity reveals what is truly in the heart of a woman.

Plot Summary: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiographical tale of Maya Angelou’s childhood beginning in Stamps, Arkansas through her late adolescence in San Francisco, California. Living in the south as an African American girl, Angelou experiences prejudice, racism, and intolerance. Angelou’s grandmother, with whom Angelou is living and being raised by, serves as a strong role-model for the young girl. She later goes on to live with her mother on the west coast.

Evaluation: (A+) In true Maya Angelou fashion, Caged Bird is written with eloquence and emotion. The author writes with a unique ability for description that allows the reader to see and hear the characters in Angelou's memoir. One can't help to feel as if he or she knows Momma, Vivian Baxter, and Maya Angelou herself. While not always serious and straight faced, Angelou interjects humor in her narrative. It is Angelou's humor that helps to ease the pain and horror of the seemingly humorless events she faced.  This is a good book to show teens that despite social class, race, ethnicity, or sex, people can live up to their full potential and accomplish goals they set out to achieve.    

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The Glass Castle

Title: The Glass Castle

Author: Jeannette Walls

ISBN: 978-0-7432-4754-2

Recommended Grade Level of User:  9th and Up

Publisher: Scribner

Media Type: Book

Copyright:  2005

Genre:  Memoir

Reader's Annotation:  With non-conformist parents, Jeannette and her siblings are forced to raise themselves.  Through it all, the family manages to maintain a strong bond and fierce loyalty showing that there is always a light at the end of every tunnel.

Plot Summary:  The Glass Castle is a memoir of an award winning writer and journalist. Walls' story begins as a young girl and follows her life with a particular focus on her childhood. Her father, an alcoholic, and her mother, a free spirit, lack serious parenting skills or, at the very least, a desire to parent.  Walls and her parents along with her three siblings move from Phoenix to California and then to West Virginia throughout the course of the book.  Each move brings new hardships and experiences.  All the while, the children maintain a close bond and enjoy each others' company which helps to explain the absence of pity or sorrow from Walls' writing.  

Evaluation:  (A+)  The author takes a story that is serious and finds humor in it.  For example, one might argues that toddlers should not be cooking hot dogs at the stove by themselves, but somehow this scenario works with Walls' narration.  Additionally, the author effectively portrays the love within her family despite the hardships she and her siblings faced.  Furthermore, Walls does not villanize her parents for their neglect and life choices, which may be surprising for some, and this further reinforces the love and loyalty within the family.           

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