While A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a stand-out book for any reader, there are similar novels with common themes that are excellent books to read after A Tree Grows in Brooklyn–and many of them have diverse characters. Publishers who rejected Betty for 20 years, I’m looking at you.) It’s a magic city and it isn’t real It’s like. Brooklyn, Francie tells her brother at the end of the novel. A tree still grows Betty Smith’s subsequent novels didn’t have nearly the impact of her first, which is still being read and discussed.

If an 11-year-old girl could inspire soldiers fighting in WWII, surely today’s kids can also relate to a resilient girl. Francie Nolan: Coming of Age in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. (I feel like this is a good history lesson for publishers who want authors to change their main characters from females to males. The book, first published in 1943, was released as an Armed Services Edition–small enough to fit in the pockets of soldiers (it even shows up in the Band of Brothers mini-series). This tale of a young girl growing up in poverty in Brooklyn, New York, has moved readers for decades.įrancie Nolan is an introspective, bookish girl who escapes into her imagination when the grind of poverty and her father’s alcoholism get to be too much.ĭespite the bleakness, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is ultimately a hopeful story, with the eponymous tree as the central metaphor of resilience. Do you want to read more books like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith? The books on this list are perfect choices for anyone looking for a similar novel with unforgettable characters, strong females, and hopeful stories of perseverance.īetty Smith’s classic novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, is a favorite of so many readers.

A tree that grows in brooklyn