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Showing posts from March, 2015

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou                 Can you imagine a young, youthful and vibrant Maya Angelou? Honestly, the renowned poet, author and activist running around on dirt roads, bathing outside with water from a well, living in a tiny town in Arkansas? I couldn’t until I started reading her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In her autobiography Angelou reveals information about her youth from being sent on a train with her brother to Arkansas when they were three and four as their parents divorced, to being pregnant and delivering her first child. It all starts in the 1920’s and the racial tension was painfully obvious between blacks and whites. Momma, Maya’s grandmother, owned the only Negro general store in town and it was the social hub of the community. It was here Maya, born Marguerite Johnson, and her brother Bailey Junior would learn many of their lessons about life and what it meant to be black in this world. Both were intellige

Tigerlily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

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Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson                 Tiger Lily never quite fit in with the Sky Eaters. She was found as a baby by the tribe’s shaman, Tik Tok, hidden under flowers. He named her after those flowers and kept her as his own. Tiger Lily was never truly accepted by other girls or some of the older women and would spend most of her time hunting with the boys. As the boys got older, they too shunned Tiger Lily forcing her to hunt alone and to befriend the other outcasts. When the ship sank off the coast of Neverland it was Tiger Lily who chose to save the lone survivor an Englander, even though the council had decided to let him die. The council was furious and in an effort to tame her they arranged for to her to marry Giant, who could best be described as a dirty, smelly oaf. It was around this time that Tiger Lily met Peter Pan, a boy unlike any she had ever encountered. He and the lost boys would bring her on their adventures and accept her in a way that no one else

Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby

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Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby                 Michael Jordan is the man who was born on February 17,1963 who would win six NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls. He was born in Brooklyn, New York to James and Deloris Jordan. He would be raised in Wilmington, North Carolina with his two brother and two sisters. The family wouldn’t live too far from his grandparents and their family’s beginnings in Teachey, North Carolina. Michael would be cut from his high school’s varsity team as a sophomore, only to return as a junior and dominate the team. He would go on to play for the North Carolina Tar Heels bringing with him a NCAA Championship. After his third year in college he would be drafted third in the NBA to play for the Chicago Bulls. This is the story we know of Michael Jordan and his legend. Lazenby, in this biography, reveals the aspects of Jordan’s life and character that many people hadn’t known or understood.                 Michael Jordan: The Life

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

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Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel                 Thomas Cromwell, the son of a blacksmith, has risen to be the confidant of King Henry VIII. He has survived the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey and has slowly gained the king’s trust. Thomas is pivotal to the king’s plan to annul his marriage to Queen Katherine and marry Anne Boleyn. He is assuring titles, collecting debts and secrets from those privy to the chambers of the dukes and maidens of the court. How did this man of lowly status rise to such power? It is Thomas that people seek out when they want the king’s favor. It is to him that Katherine makes her case in hopes it will reach the kings ear. It is Thomas that even Lady Mary, the girl who was once a princess, states her case in defying, Queen Anne and Princess Elizabeth. As the years passed he played his cards right to make sure he never ended up at the Tower where treason would cause the heads to roll of those who were once trusted by the king.                 I thought

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, and American Slave by Frederick Douglass

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass                 Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Tuckahoe, Maryland. He was born a slave to Harriet Bailey. His father was a white man but his name Frederick never knew. Frederick also never knew his mother, only seeing her a few times in his life before her death. He never knew when he was born and could only guess his age based on passed information. Sophia Auld was the woman who taught Frederick his ABC’s. She was the wife of Hugh Auld, the man who Frederick’s master sent Frederick to live with to be a companion to their young son Thomas.  Hugh disagreed with Frederick learning his ABC’s or how to read stating “if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.” Sophia stopped teaching Frederick and eventually turned cold against him. Hugh Auld’s words sank deep into Frederick’s mind and he reali