A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

I first read this book almost 40 years ago when I found it in my parent's bookcase. I was in grammar school at the time and my mother thought I wasn't old enough to read it so she hid it from me. It didn't take me very long to discover her hiding place and I read as much as I could each Saturday when she went to do her shopping. Even as I child, I was moved by the story of Francie's coming of age in a city and economic situation that were completely foreign to mine. Betty Smith's writing transported me into Francie's life. I loved the book then and still have the copy that belonged to my mother. Over the years, I have forgotten the details of the story, but have remembered the feelings that the book inspired in me and how I felt connected in some way to Francie. I have just recently come across my old worn copy and am currently reading it again. The feelings still ring true, but to read it now as an adult, I am finding a depth to the novel that I missed reading it as a child. I thoroughly recommend this book.

i just finished reading "A tree grows in brooklyn" as part of a class project. I've got to admit, that I chose the book because of it's high point value. I had the book for 1 month, and just read it casually until i really got into it. The last 300 hundread pages were magical! I didn't want to put the book down! There seemed to be a new surprise every time i turned the pages. There was just so much to learn about Francie and her family. The book at me crying towards the end, even though it wasn't sad. It was one of those books you just want to go on forever and never end. I think this book ranks alongside my favorite book of all time "Circle of Friends". This book is one for people who enjoy reading about family life, and getting very much invovled with the charecters and caring what happens to them in the following chapters. I admit, there were some points in the book in which i was screaming at the mother "Don't do that to Francie! " i would yell in my head. I think that is what makes this book so good-you become Francie and become very much a part of her world. I read 400 pages of the book in 2 days. I never put it down-it was that good. If you are looking for a good book, this is definiatly one to pick.

Betty Smith's ATGIB is an astounding masterpiece. The novel is a collection of life stories and hardships that will never be forgotten. This storie of Francie, a young girl who lives her life in Brooklyn, New York, in poverty and coming from a fairly uneducated family and overcoming hardships such as starvation and drunkeness, and suffering losses like the death of her Father. You come to love each character as if they lived in your life. Her mother Katie, is well displayed as a strong hold who keeps the family together. She is a strong character who should be admired for her courage. Her father, Johnny, however, isn't as strong, and with his drinking and then his death he fades from the story line. This book is completely relatable. Smith wrote with an uncanny knowing as if she had actually lived each and every event. WE would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It has a little bit of everything... danger, romance, family, history, struggle, suspense. To read this book is to read about life and is as close as you can get to actually living it.

When I was eleven years old I first began reading this wonderful novel. It tells the story of a poor young girl named Francie Nolan who lives in Brooklyn in the earliest years of the Twentieth Century. No work of fiction before or since has to me so captured the wondering observations of a child who lives his life in emotional isolation. The shabby, mean, and colorless streets and tenements of Williamsburg are to Francie a playground of colors, mysteries, and adventures. Francie bears a passionate love for her hopeless, drunken, dreaming father. In contrast, she struggles to love her practical, hardened, and unsentimental mother. This conflict leads to a climax that forces Francie to achieve a balance between the dreams of her father and the practicality of her mother. If you enjoy fiction that allows you to see the world through a child's eyes, this one's for you.

I felt that A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN really expressed the life of a poor, struggling family growing up in the ghettos of Brooklyn. Betty Smith worked hard to enable the readers to understand this young child's perspective of life. The readers were able to focus in on the real problems and hardships that a child faced, when she was poor, and living in an unfair society, with uncaring people. The three children learn to deal with things and take them as they are, although they are having a very troublesome childhood. The novel goes on to tell about the parents, especially the father who seemed lost in the world. The father, spends all of his money buying alcohol, and getting drunk, where as the mother tries to cover up for his behaviors, and tries to make life seem normal. But of course, life isn't normal for this family. An even though the children's schools don't offer much of an education, the children discover how much they want to learn about life, and it's interesting ways. With only their mother to boost their self esteem, the children go on to collage, and the daughter has an editing job, where she earns a large amount of money to keep the family going. I enjoyed this book whole-heartedly and found it to be a suspense-holding novel with very good ideas. The author really made each character different, but loving towards each other. I hope all of the young readers in this world have a chance to read this wonderful novel.

My dad gave this to me as required reading. Since I was twelve, I thought it would be boring. It was one of the most realistic and interesting books I've ever read. I could almost smell the coffee or feel they're hunger. I felt their emotions along with them. Everybody should read this.