A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a beautifully crafted masterpiece with a plot that can never be summed up in brief. It is a novel about life, love, and coming of age in a place where you're not always appreciated for who you are. It takes place in Brooklyn obviously, but during a time when the whole country was scurrying around looking for money. The main character Francie grows up in the novel and takes the role as the protagonist. Readers fall in love with her instantly and will not put this book down until it's finished.- Kim

"From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood...On the day when she first knew she could read, she made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived."

"Let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere-be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost."

"She was made up of all of these good and these bad things...She was the books she read in the library...Part of her life was made from the tree growing rankly in the yard. She was the bitter quarrels she had with her brother whom she loved dearly. She was Katie's secret, despairing weeping. She was the shame of her father staggering home drunk...She was all of these things and of something more...It was something that had been born into her and her only."