Maya AngelouBy: Jayne Pettit Series: Rainbow Biography Poet, writer, activist, entertainer, professor: Maya Angelou is all of these. Her remarkable story includes a childhood trauma, a leading role in an opera, her activism in the civil rights movement, and her devotion to poetry, writing, and teaching to promote the cause of all African Americans. Based in part on Maya's autobiography, this is the inspiring story of an extraordinary woman. "Pettit makes