What Julia needed to know

I would recommend this read to just about anyone. I only remember there being a few questionable moments. Abortion and affairs are discussed, but things work out as they should.

I loved how Julia's journey to find Sarah's Key effected so many people in such diverse ways. It really shows the impact you can have, especially when it comes to something so small.

My sister-in-law Laura is the one who recommended this one to me. She described it as "realistic." I feel like that fits well. Some character's stories end so sadly, as they would have in real life. Some of the things you want to have work out don't, but still the human spirit pushes on.

I'm really sad to know that over the course of my life, the events of WWII will become a far distant past. The world needs more Julia's.

In the author's note, she (or he) mentions this is not to be read as historical fiction. But I honestly don't know how it can't be. WWII fiction seems to be a really popular contemporary topic right now and I'm grateful it is. Tough nothing catches the tragedy as well as the memoirs from the time, I do feel it is important we don't fall into the trap Julia feels guilty to falling into. Not knowing. I hope author's can continue to dream up captivating story lines such as these so that we are never guilty of not knowing.

It pains me to know that near the end of my life the events of WWII will be a far distant past. The world needs more Julia's, people who have a passionate desire to know.

Beauty in the darkness of the past

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is such a wonderful book. It is such a shame more people haven't read it. This is one I think I could teach every year for the rest of my life and never tire of it. Sadly, I know if I tried I'd eventually run into opposition from parents. I heard of a teacher being fired over teaching this.

Such a shame. How can people turn their backs to the events Angelou speaks of. Sure the sexual abuse is heartbreaking, but it's real. It's a true story, and it happens to so many women. Plus, I felt the way she tells the story is so fascinating. She tells it just as a 7-year-old would have experienced it. Especially an 7-year-old who had never been hugged. Who had faced years of abandonment from her parents. The guilt Maya feels after word was so frustrating for some of my students, but again her descriptions are so marvelous. You see right into the mind of a confused victim.

As she grows older her descriptions and her vocabulary matures. I doubt she even noticed the voice change. I also doubt she planned it. Such a testament to the wonderful writer she is. The sexual identity chapter is the only one I feel parents really have the right to question. But isn't it so much better that their children experience their introduction to these things through the power of words rather than the glorification of Hollywood and the media. I feel like if anything, this opens up the need for good communication skills between parents and children.

Maya's story needs to be told. Her experiences need to be talked about. Of course, the book should be read with caution, but if you are so close-minded you can't find beauty in her life and in her prose you are sheltered passed the point of damage control.

I found this jewel at the Gettysburg gift shop. I'd never heard of it. But it's the nature of the beast, I'm drawn to tragedy. The amazing part is that she admits to keeping some of the most heinous abuses towards her out. I can't even imagine.

We as humans really are a disappointing species. How sick was Ms Bellmont? How could she reason with any of her treatments of Harriet? And those Bellmont men, to allow such to happen in their home. They really are just as guilty. It is sickening.

Nothing I've read so far beats Fredrick Douglass' slave narrative. But I'm still so grateful books like this are republished after years of being lost.