Maya Angelou     1969     304p     MMPB

Born in St. Louis and sent with her brother and no adults on a train when only a few years old to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas, this is the first – and best – of Aneglou’s memoirs, spanning ages 3-17. Through Angelou’s eyes we can see segregated Stamps, racially divided St. Louis and the sexual violence she experienced at age 8, and later the world of 1930s California. Angelou easily let’s one get lost in her narrative: terrified and helpless as a child at the whims of the world, feeling powerful and triumphant when her grandmother stands up for herself, or cool-headed when stranded in rural Mexico.

$1-5