I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1-69)

Summary
In the expostion to I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings there is a girl name Maya and she is three and her brother name Bailey and he is four. There parents got a divorce, and the parents send the kids back and forth by train from California, to Stamps, and then to Arkansas to live with their grandmother. They had a cotton- harvesting season and the grandmother(which they call Momma now) sells it to the black people in the community. It is very poor, so many people don't have much money. As time goes on Maya starts to fall in love with reading. The author that she really liked was Shakespeare, and she knew he was white. There starts to become a conflict in the neighborhood. Mr. Steward(he is the former sheriff) he warns Momma about how it is war because white men says that black men is "messing with" their white women. Then Momma hide Willie in the oinion bin, so just in case the mob comes. Maya goes through self esteem because many men say that she is ugly, but her brother makes sure that he sticks up for her. Bailey is the most imporant person in her life. There is still racial remarks going on. The little white kids have no respect for Momma nor Willie. They insult both of them, and it hurts Bailey and especially Maya because they hate that it is like the way it is. There have been some tention building and Momma thinks that it is not safe for blacks should not talk to whites. Momma calls herself a realist rather than a coward. Comes to find out they convince themselves that their mother had died(which she didn't), but later Bailey and Maya destroy the china doll that was sent to them for Christmas. Later on the father comes and visits them unexpectedly. Big Bailey drove them to see thier mom and all their mom said was behave. When they see thier mom they describes her as beautiful. Maya starts to worry about her beauty and Uncle Tommy said don't worry about not being pretty because you are smart. Maya feels as her and her brother lives differently from the other kids.

Quote
A quote from the book that i liked and grab my attention is " I'm gonna work so fast today I'm gonna make you look like you standing still(Angelou 7)". For some reason as i was reading the book this one quote was just to funny to me. She is telling her sister basically that she is a slow working and that how she can work ten times as faster and make it look like you did nothing. This quote connects to my life because this quote reminds me of my mother . I say that because my mom says that all the time. Well not exactly lke that, but she says we move so slow she can work circles around us.

Reaction
My reaction to this book it kind of shocking, but not really. This type of book is during the segregation and the racial times. It kills me to see how colored people got treated like that, and they couldn't do nothing about it. So far this book is really good and I love it. I knew it was going to be good because of who it is written by (Maya Angelou). She is one of my favorite poets/book writers. I think anything I read by her I will love. This book have courage and a-lot of heart and that is the best part about it and I can't wait to finish it.