A Book I Read Last Year

A book I enjoyed reading in seventh grade was I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. This autobiography is about a young girl named Marguerite (Maya) Ann Johnson, and how she battles the harsh life of racism in Stamps, Arkansas. At the age of three, Maya is sent to live with her father's mother (Momma), with her brother Bailey who is four, both feeling abandoned by their parents. Throughout her life, she is encountered with many problems because of being Black. One being refused to be helped by a white dentist, even though Momma loaned money to him during the Great Depression. Maya also has various trauma scenes in this book as she is molested and later raped by her mother's boyfriend at the age of eight. Though her life is quite a mess in this book, she eventually learns how to deal but also speak out to racism. I wouldn't exactly recommend this book to everyone because some parts are a little bit graphic, knowing it's real and that it's happened, but people who love great stories about struggles in life should definitely read it.