Maya Angelou (Journey of the Heart) can be used as an independent or group read for fourth and fifth graders. The story has some intense subjects, but is told in a way that is not graphic. The biography is grade level reading and has many details to engage the reader. This book could be used to learn about text features as it has an index, table of contents, bibliography, timeline and footnotes. It is an engaging story through defeat of oppression and abandonment, but also contains those key text features for a non-fiction book. This book could also be used in a unit about civil right and be a book to look at the past of many civil rights leaders. Maya Angelou had to overcome much to get where she did and it would be interesting for the students to see how civil rights leader's past were the same and different and this book could be used to show that development.