A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

A special 75th anniversary edition of the beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century.

From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family's erratic and eccentric behavior--such as her father Johnny's taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy's habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce--no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans' life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans' daily experiences are raw with honestly and tenderly threaded with family connectedness. Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life--from "junk day" on Saturdays, when the children traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Smith has created a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as deeply resonant moments of universal experience. Here is an American classic that cuts right to the heart of life, hails the New York Times. If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, you will deny yourself a rich experience.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Published: 02/01/2005
ISBN: 9780060736262
Pages: 493
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.30w x 1.30d

Review Citations: Ingram Advance 01/01/2005 pg. 89
Ingram Advance 02/01/2005 pg. 79
Entertainment Weekly 08/22/2014 pg. 113

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 548 / Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Reading Level: 5.8 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 23