Rating: 
Summary: Worthless
Review: This is a book I actually hated. I felt it was meant to show "what growing up in a poor Catholic family in that time period in Brooklyn was like." That's my family background, and it just struck me as some upper-class WASP who beat it out of the brownstones down South at a young age's snobbish look down. The "plain" daughter got sent to a convent? The daughter who was moving up financially sent her kids to an Episcopalian school? The mother told her daughter it would have been a beautiful thing if she'd lost her virginity to a guy she wasn't going to see again, although wearing her hair down was bad? This is probably my least favorite book ever (I finished it because it was a school assignment.)
Rating: 
Summary: a dusty old book when i FOUND it
Review: c'mon-this is at least an eleven... I found this book in my grandparents basement, copywrite -like, 1920 or something. Anyway, this book is just so freakin' good.
Rating:
Summary: My all-time favorite book
Review: In the fifth grade, my teacher gave this book to me as an end-of-the-year present. I was dismayed because it was long and looked excruciatingly boring. Inside the cover, he wrote that I would someday enjoy it. He couldn't have been more correct. I have read and reread this brilliant book, about the passage of Francie into adulthood through the struggles of poverty. I have never experienced anything like what she did, but I felt as if I could be her. Everyone must read this book. It is a timeless classic.
Rating:
Summary: So real, you feal as if you were there
Review: I picked up this book at the library at school. I had no idea who Betty Smith was or that the book was going to be any good. I cannot ever remember ever understanding a book as I did this one. The writing was so clear, I got the feeling and the meaning deep in my heart. I devoured it page by page feeling Francines every sorrow and joy. I think Betty Smith deserves a pat on the back and a thank you for this amazing piece of writing she has contributited to us.
Rating:
Summary: A Touching Book
Review: This story is so true and one of my favorites. Meet Francie, the daughter of Katie and Johnny Nolan, who don't have much future in store for their intelligent and bookworm daughter. You learn about Francie, the so honestly true story. It's amazing that it isn't your story. The slums of Brooklyn come to life in this touching story. If you did not enjoy this book you have no passion for life, or no feelings for those who do exsist but you push them out of your mind.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Review: This book was 9th grade honors English required reading...our teachers beat it to death, and it was really awful anyway. The book was boring, pointless, and plotless, until towards the end. I would not reccommed it.
Rating:
Summary: This book serves as a comfort to me everyday of my life.
Review: So much will be left unsaid about my love for "Tree". I'm only 16 years old and I was introduced to the Noland family 2 years ago. This is a book that will bring tears to my eyes, a smile on my face, and countless hours of being locked up in my room imagining that I am living in a flat in Brooklyn- 1917. Thank you Betty Smith for bringing this book into my life. -Sarah Homan
Rating:
Summary: the best book I ever read
Review: Turning 16 I went to California to stay there for a year as an exchange student. My English wasn't very good and the first thing I had to do in my junior-English-class was to read the "Tree". I had a hard time surviving the introduction and getting on was even harder. But even though I failed the first five or six quizzes on the book (we did one quizz a day) I somehow started to understand the language and to sympathize with the Nolans. Francie Noland became my dear friend during my first two months in California and my English got better and better turning the pages of Betty Smith's wonderful novel. The essencial thing that made Francie special to me was the way my English teacher pronounced MY name, Franzi, that sounds differend in German and in English. When I came back to Berlin I couldn't get a German copie of the "Tree" which I thought was terrible for me. I searched the libraries and found an old English copie which I read instantly. I missed the Nolans and the 1900 New York. END
Rating:
Summary: A lasting impression...
Review: I first read about the Nolans when I was in the 7th grade for a class assignment and I have read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" countless times since. Although I am an avid reader of the classics- I always stray back to my ratty old copy of "A Tree Grows..." - the same copy that I have now had in my possesion for the past 18 years. I still get a tear in my eye when I think about Francie and all she endured- perhaps because I can relate to her life in so many ways. Like Mary Nolan did for her children- I hope to do for my own. As Mary Nolan had Neeley and Francie read a page from The Bible, and a page from Shakespeare every night before going to bed- my children will hopefully do the same- however they will also read a page from " A Tree Grows From Brooklyn". I only hope that they too will learn as much from the Nolans as I have over the years...
Rating:
Summary: I wrote about Francie and her book.
Review: I thought this book was amazing. It was one of my most favorite books. I felt like Francie became a distant friend. I felt her hardship, and I felt sad for her, too. She was a poor girl living in Brooklyn in an extremely hard time. I was astounded when Betty Smith said that Katie, her mother, liked Neeley, her brother, more than her. Thank god I had never had that happen to me, but it really hurt me when that was said in the book. I felt terrible when Francie's father died, he was her only support, she could always fall back down on him, and then boom, he died. So sad. She was so helpless, yet so strong. She was a wilted flower that still had the potential to live. Betty Smith gave Francie a very realistic role in the book, as she did all the other characters. She built them up beautifully, so you felt you really knew them, atleast I did. The story was like a jigsaw puzzle that wasn't missing any pieces.
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