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Notes from the (Bibliographic) Underground

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   $18.20 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

   L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City

   John Buntin

Staff Pick

I read this when I was around 11 years old, and it made a huge impression on me. Set in a time when Brooklyn might not have been the chic neighborhood it is now, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is about an inner-city girl seeing hope in her hard world.
Recommended by Mary Z., Powells.com

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Average customer rating based on 4 comments:

tierney.jbw, November 22, 2009 (view all comments by tierney.jbw)
“There was a special Nolan idea about the coffee. It was their one great luxury….each one was allowed three cups a day with milk. Other times you could help yourself to a cup of black coffee anytime you felt like it. Sometimes when you had nothing at all and it was raining and you were all alone in the flat, it was wonderful to know you could have something even though it was only a cup of black and bitter coffee.” Page 14, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. This quote is one of my favourite passages from a book. It makes me feel sad and happy, fortunate and unlucky, rich and poor all at once. It makes me feel sad and unlucky because I can never get that feeling that Francie has of just being able to waste something or have something on a rainy day and that makes her feel rich and extravagant. Without that feeling she would be just like all the other people on her block in that they knew they were poor and they could never get out of that so why enjoy life. So it makes me feel happy because Francie gets the chance to enjoy life and be hopeful, all with just being able to waste some coffee.
Francie is a wonderful character, if I got the chance to meet a character out of a book it would probably be Francie. As a child she is kind and hopeful. She has to grow up quickly to help her family and that makes her more mature. It is great to see her grow up and accomplish her dreams.
“Some people call it the tree of heaven. No matter where its seeds fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew up in boarded up lots and neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement. It grew lushly, but only in the tenement districts.” Page 6, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I wanted to include this passage because I think it symbolizes Francies life. Even out of her sad and sometimes bitter surroundings Francie manages to grow up kind and happy, like the tree is beautiful. Her dreams of going to college make her reach up to the sky. And just as the tree loves Brooklyn, Francie is happiest on Brooklyn. She wants to keep her Brooklyn accent and always come back to Brooklyn because it is her home and even though she has risen out of it she doesn’t want to leave it.
It is a good story to because the characters are realistic. The mother is hardworking and keeps the family afloat, but she can be harsh and she loves one child more than the other. Papa is joyful and a loving father but he drinks too much and isn’t responsible. Aunt Sissy is a kind aunt and mother but people gossip about her. And Francie is an intelligent and nice person but she doesn’t know much of the world beyond Brooklyn so she can be a bit naïve for all her maturity.
So this is why I love this book so much, it makes you love all the characters for all of their faults and it is a story I can read over and over again and still keep discovering new things in it.

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kelly21, March 24, 2009 (view all comments by kelly21)
This has to be one of my all time favorite books. Though sad at some points it always manages to lift you back up again wanting more. I would recomend this book to anyone who will listen.

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chocochic53, December 9, 2007 (view all comments by chocochic53)
I picked up this book not knowing that it is a classic. Although at some points it could get a little slow, this book had great insight into a girl's life teaching me a few things about how life used to be. I would definitely recommend it!

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780060736262

Author:

Smith, Betty

Publisher:

Harper Perennial

Foreword:

Quindlen, Anna

Author:

by Betty Smith

Subject:

Literary

Subject:

Classics

Subject:

General Fiction

Edition Description:

Paperback

Series:

Perennial Classics

Publication Date:

February 2005

Binding:

Paperback

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Pages:

493

Dimensions:

8.01x5.38x.93 in. .92 lbs.