From the Bookshelf of EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club…

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Betty Smith

Start date: April 1, 2020

Finish date: April 30, 2020

Discussion: CLASSICS READS

Why we're reading this: Group Pick for April ‘20 - Classics
[close] Group Pick for April ‘20 - Classics

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 216 topics — 6,519 comments total

CLASSICS READS

Great Expectations - SPOILER-FREE
By Renata · 7 posts · 96 views

last updated Sep 29, 2025 01:05AM

The Picture of Dorian Gray - *SPOILERS*
By Kaseadillla · 122 posts · 549 views

last updated Sep 21, 2025 05:00PM

showing 10 of 21 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jan 19, 2014 Franzi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, own

Come back to me, Francie!
Ahh...it hurts to finish this book. I'm pretty sure that I won't be reading a better book in 2014. This book just turned me inside out... Francie might be my alltime favorite protagonist.

This book is a coming of age story starting in Brooklyn, around 1910. It's beautiful and tragic and unfair and magical and full of mysery and love and just everything, like life itself.

Read this book, seriously! Read it! If I recommend a book that would fit for anyone, it's this. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 20, 2019 Rianto Dermawan rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement

The title, the author's note, and sweet opening in first paragraph of chapter one Betty Smith's book, is a perfect complete package to battle my neglection to read.
This city reminds me of 'Little Men' (2016, Ira Sachs movie ) with the scene of kids skate-rolling a Some people called it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed fell, it made a tree which struggled to reach the sky. It grew in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps and it was the only tree that grew out of cement

The title, the author's note, and sweet opening in first paragraph of chapter one Betty Smith's book, is a perfect complete package to battle my neglection to read.
This city reminds me of 'Little Men' (2016, Ira Sachs movie ) with the scene of kids skate-rolling along the street while my eyes wandering and search up Manhattan Avenue, Maujer, Ten Eyck, Stagg to Scholes Street in google maps, street view mode on, my hands tapping in my laptop. For those who live out of USA , never set foot at city like Brooklyn, NY but easy to imagine cause so many films taken set in Brooklyn, like 'Brooklyn Finest', 'Brooklyn Rules', 'Last Exit in Brooklyn', 'Brooklyn Lobster', and the big movie such 'Dog Day Afternoon', 'Once Upon a Time in America'. There are other films to be added the numbers, so the city has a big name for the this book. How about the story inside.

The story goes slow, about Francie and Neeley, children who are not rich and hungry, so they play while collecting junk along Brooklyn street, selling it to get a little money for bread, and buying candy with game prizes. But the mother give the children lesson to live and must go to school for education though they struggle to live day to day in ragged dress, body stink of misery. They have to struggle in life because it's making their strong.
Education would pull them out of the grim and dirt.
Like the tree growing in the shade , gets no sun and water only when it rain.

Word by word woven beautifully become story plainly flows telling how to live and to love in house with family, in streets with neighborhood, in school with teacher and friends, from summer to winter, written by Betty Smith in Francie's view, character of a girl with cuteness, innocence, curious, brave but shy. Even when Francie was attacked and harassed by perpetrator, a man who before already raped and killed other little girl, the narrative seem lack of thriller, no drama, only little frighten.
Again when the father died at the hospital, there is no surprise, no grief, no meaning. The naivety by the destitute numb their heart because normal of loosing or disowning a thing.
"Maybe he is luckier than we are now."

The narration was changed when Francie entering 14 to 15 years old, the feeling occupied in the story when the mother giving birth of a baby sister amidst the time when only three of them awaiting the delivery. The thrill, drama and the tense was there while the mother from time to time asking, "what time is it ?" Betty Smith seemed embody into Francie's character who changed from little girl become teenage girl, who realize her growth and aware of her woman's thing, and conscience with her unfortunate live . But that is the only suspense to read, following pages the fire goes out and the story back to flat. Adversity away form her life, becoming a woman to love a man, happiness come, end of story. I realized this book is semi autobiography, not a fiction .
" It's mysterious here in Brooklyn. It's like a dream. The houses and streets don't seem real. Neither do the people". ...more

Like · see review

Nov 17, 2020 Shelley Shoemaker rated it it was amazing

A story of beauty, loss, resilience and hope, and of never ending optimism in the darkest of moments. The importance of family and commitment abounds throughout this old-fashioned tale of joys and sorrows. Truly beautiful!

Like · see review