A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century.

From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for the often harsh life of Williamsburg demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior—such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce—no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are tenderly threaded with family connectedness and raw with honesty. Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life-from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children of Francie’s neighborhood traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Betty Smith has artfully caught this sense of exciting life in a novel of childhood, replete with incredibly rich moments of universal experiences—a truly remarkable achievement for any writer.

Rule #1 of falling in love with your best friend’s sister: Be prepared to fight for her. 

Even though Cassandra Carrigan doesn’t want to be fought for. No matter what he does, she won’t speak to Roman Sullivan. Not a single word.

When Roman’s parents move, forcing him to live with the Carrigans, he’s not sure how he’s supposed to live in a room next to the girl he’s loved for years, the girl who doesn’t want him there.

But she has a secret, one existing between the pages of the romance books she loses herself in: Cassie is a hopeless romantic, in love with the idea of love.

When she asks him for her first kiss, he can’t say no to her, not when he wants to fall into that single moment, hoping it doesn’t have to end.

Fantasy can’t last forever, and that version of the girl he knows is nothing but that, a fantasy.

The battle for the real Cassandra Carrigan has only just begun, and Roman is going to prove that one kiss isn’t enough.