A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

This novel is regarded as one of the greatest American novels of the twentieth century and was very widely read when it was published in 1943 (it sold 300,000 copies in just six weeks).

The author, Betty Smith (born 15 December 1896), grew up in poverty in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and based the novel on her own adolescent experience. Her central character, Francie, spends much of her childhood accompanied more by books than by friends. In response to her mother Katie's question, “What must I do, Mother, what must I do to make a different world for her?", the grandmother advised Francie's mother, Katie, that she should read to her family every evening from the Bible and from the complete works of Shakespeare:
“The secret lies in the reading and the writing. You are able to read. Every day you should read one page from some good book to your child. Every day this must be until the child learns to read. Then she must read every day.”

The concluding chapters show Francie gaining independence through the education that she has received. The young men on the streets of New York are preparing to go to Europe to fight in the war. A soldier admirer on a date with Francie speaks of his fear:
“I may not come back from over there and I'm afraid... afraid. I might die... die.”
Months later, she thinks of him:
“He was with the Rainbow Division — the Division even now pushing into the Argonne Woods. Was he even now lying dead in France under a plain white cross?”