A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943)

I actually loved this one. I know it gives a lot of seemingly unnecessary detail, but as the kids and I are covering US history close to the time period, I actually found it captivating. It's so fun to find fiction that surrounds you so well in a specific time and place, and Smith is wonderful at weaving not only plot but setting. Her characters are solid, well-fleshed-out, in spite of the number of years the volume spans. I was sincerely sad to say goodbye to Francie. ( )

A wonderful coming of age story about a girl and her family in Brooklyn in the early 1900's. It is interesting to see the issues of that time period are not much different from what people face today by those just struggling to get by. I think that I was surprised by that. ( )

One of the best books I have read. The thing that struck me most about this book is that this book kept on getting better with each chapter. The last 12 or so were my favourites. ( )

NA

This was THE sweetest. It was like Anne of Green Gables following the coming of age of an insightful headstrong girl but with poverty in early 1900s Brooklyn instead.

Francie had completely captured my heart with her individualism and strength by the end of the first chapter, let alone the end of the book. Usually, the uselessness or the precocity of a child protagonist can be very off-putting. However, here Smith imbues Francie with such authenticity - capturing so accurately the feelings and extremely straightforward if-then logic of childhood as children seek to categorise the unfamiliar aspects of the world that they're bombarded with everyday - that it becomes a tender reminder and reminisce of bygone childhoods.

Beyond Francie, Smith filled out the story with an unforgettable, well-realised cast of characters. Each character - along with their own backstories and innermost thoughts and flaws - contributed a realistic dimension to Francie's life with relationships, anecdotes, opinions, and disagreements.

And aside from the fantastically-drawn cast, the book dealt with a lot more social issues than I expected, and in a youth-accessible manner via Smith's effectively simple prose. In particular, I appreciate its honesty in portraying the external shaming and societal discrimination that people in poverty experience.

The ending, although clearly set up early in the book with the sudden appearance of McShane, remains very odd to me. That Francie and Neeley have basically pulled themselves out of poverty is already heartwarming and inspiring, perhaps a perfect ending. The windfall of McShane feels almost too fairytale-esque, like A Little Princess, that it nudges the story into slightly-unbelievable circumstances. Is the idea that Katie is also getting a happy ending here?

Title Note: Prior to reading this book, I had seen Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn on a few book lists of Books about Girls and Women. So when I found this book at the bookshop last year, I was very intrigued, was Betty Smith just very big about writing about titular trees? But no, this is just an alternate title of the same book. ( )