Angelou's moving account of her childhood and adolescence in the Depression-era South. This is her unforgettable memoir of growing up black in the 1930s and 1940s in a tiny Arkansas town where Angelou's grandmother's store was the heart of the community and where white people seemed as foreign as aliens from another planet. 304 pp.

"Students, traditional and non-traditional aged, find this book plunges them into a passionate, sensitive life in the midst of troubled and sometimes brutal realities. They found Maya Angelou's spirit and strength a wellspring of pride in womanhood. Students also experienced the book as writers themselves and learned much about the memoir craft."-Constance Berman, Director Professional Studies, Southern Vermont College