Surprisingly, I never had to read this book in school. Angelou's death last week inspired me to pick it up and I'm truly glad I did. She was a gifted and talented writer and reading this book gave me new perspective on her childhood and life.

Wow! This is my first time reading a book by Angelou and how she guides the audience is just impressive. The story discusses how she grows up and how the world forms her to who she becomes. This book is very heavy, you can feel her innocence as a child and some of the racism and cruelty she experienced as if you were there. Especially during one section, I had to put the book down and go for a walk to escape the story. Through these trials, she still perseveres and becomes as strong as her mother. Great book with some triggering concepts.

Beautiful writing. I'm glad I finally read this - or listened to it, more accurately. She reads the audiobook herself.

From the first sentence I was caught in the author's writing. It was so easy to read, and when I started to read the book I couldn't put it down.
The book taught me a lot of how it was to grow up the way the author grew up, so this whole book has been a learning experience for me. The author brings up important issues from their childhood, issues that need to be addressed more and taken more seriously. I am fortunate enough to not recognise myself in all these scenarios, but not everyone is and we (as a society) need to do more about that.

However, it did seem like some stories/details were left out, which made the book feel kind of jumpy.