View source for Little People, Big Dreams: Maya Angelou by Lisbeth Kaiser and Leire Salaberria

{{infobox2
|title=Little People, Big Dreams: Maya Angelou
|sort=Little People, Big Dreams: Maya Angelou
|author=Lisbeth Kaiser and Leire Salaberria
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=A nicely-pitched autobiography of Maya Angelou for the 7+ age group.  It would sit particularly well in a school library.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=32
|publisher=Frances Lincoln Children's Books
|date=September 2016
|isbn=978-1847808905
|website=
|video=
|aznuk=1847808905
|aznus=1847808905
|cover=1847808905
}}

Maya Angelou was born 'Marguerite' Angelou in St Louis, but her brother called her Maya and the name stuck.  When she was four she and her brother went to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas.  In the nineteen thirties people in the southern states of the USA were segregated by the colour of their skin and as a black girl Maya found the world to be very cruel.  Life at home was hard too and when she was eight her mother's boyfriend attacked her.  Maya stopped talking, but through this she was introduced to the world of books and read widely.  She became a top student but was told that she would not be able to get a good job because of the colour of her skin.

This stirred Maya into action and she decided that there was nothing she couldn't be - and she worked as a cook, a streetcar conductor, a dancer, a singer and an actress.  She travelled and learned other languages but her greatest achievements would be when she returned home and worked to help all people to be treated equally.  Angelou didn't start writing until quite late in life, but I've always been struck by the wisdom she displays.  At a particularly bleak time in my life her ''never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option'' was a lightbulb moment and ''If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain'' is my mantra.

''Little People, Big Dreams: Maya Angelou'' is likely to appeal most to girls in the seven plus age group, but in truth the messages she gives about treating people equally and being the best you can be are universal.  Lisbeth Kaiser tells the Angelou story clearly and in simple language.  Difficult topics are handled sensitively and never ducked and it's an ideal book to give an introduction to the principles of human rights and equality.  Leire Salaberria's illustrations bring the story to life - she deals with the issue of segregation particularly well.  It's a book which would sit well in any primary school library.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag.

The book would sit particularly well alongside two other books from the ''Little People, Big Dreams'' series: [[Little People, Big Dreams: Coco Chanel by Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Ana Albero]] and [[Little People, Big Dreams: Frida Kahlo by Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Eng Gee Fan]].

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[[Category:Lisbeth Kaiser]]
[[Category:Leire Salaberria]]
[[Category:Emerging Readers]]