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Loading... A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943)| Recently added by | trile1000, etc.etc, Edwards8, sturlington, cherryhillpl, flipper_ace, ndolliver, UFHousingSojo, GanskeLibrary, Varnothing | | Legacy Libraries | Astrid Lindgren, Carl Sandburg |
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| Epigraph |
There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps. It grows up out of cellar gratings. It is the only tree that grows out of cement. It grows lushly. . .survives without sun, water, and seemingly without earth. It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it.  | |
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Serene was a word you could put to Brooklyn, New York. | |
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Francie came away from her first chemistry lecture in a glow. In one hour she had found out that everything was made up of atoms which were in continual motion. She grasped the idea that nothing was ever lost or destroyed. Even if something was burned up or left to rot away, it did not disappear from the face of the earth; it changed into something else—gases, liquids, and powders. Everything, decided Francie after that first lecture, was vibrant with life and there was no death in chemistry. She was puzzled as to why learned people didn’t adopt chemistry as a religion. Dear God, let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well-dressed. Let me be sincere- be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost. | |
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▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English (2)
▾LibraryThing members' description
| Book description |
Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive. | |
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▾Book descriptions Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0061120073, Paperback)
Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive. Betty Smith's poignant, honest novel created a big stir when it was first published over 50 years ago. Her frank writing about life's squalor was alarming to some of the more genteel society, but the book's humor and pathos ensured its place in the realm of classics--and in the hearts of readers, young and old. (Ages 10 and older) --Emilie Coulter(retrieved from Amazon Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:51:29 -0500) (see all 9 descriptions) ▾Library descriptions Young Francie Nolan, having inherited both her father's romantic and her mother's practical nature, struggles to survive and thrive growing up in the slums of Brooklyn in the early twentieth century. » see all 12 descriptions |
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I was particularly struck by Katie, the mother: straight-forward and sharp, fully embracing responsibility for her children's well-being, her alcoholic husband, and also for her own choice and determination to marry said-husband, with both feet on the ground. I hope I can be as honest with my own kids, as Katie was with Francie, no matter how hard!
Reading the book somehow reminded me of reading To Kill a Mockingbird: the feeling that the world may have its ugliness, but that one can still have faith in the goodness and beauty of humanity. (