Books like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local "powhitetrash." At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors ("I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare") will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read.

Liked I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou? Here's what readers who loved it picked up next.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (1970) · 3.99★
The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982) · 4.17★
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X (1965) · 4.29★
for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange (1975) · 4.27★
Black Boy by Richard Wright (1945) · 4.02★
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt (1996) · 4.07★
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987) · 3.77★
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (1947) · 4.1★
Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin (1960) · 4.12★
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937) · 3.87★
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama (1995) · 3.81★
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989) · 3.9★