Author: Betty Smith
Publisher & Date: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 18 Jan 2005
Page Count: 493 pages
ISBN: 978-0060736262
Age/Reading Level: 14-18/Grades 9–12
Representation: Poverty, mental health/addiction, female main character
Other Information:
Book Information
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.”
Challenges & Bans
Challenges to the book often cite foul language, mature content, its portrayal of poverty, and difficult themes such as child abuse, alcoholism, and sex.
Specific Challenges*:
Awards & Accolades
PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick, one of the New York Public Library “Books of the Century”
