skybridge

akaakp.bsky.social · @akaakp.bsky.social@bridge.neodb.net

Rated A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 10/10

One of my favorite all-time stories, and Francie Nolan is one of the great heroines. This is <i>Little Women</i> for first-generation American girls. <br/><br/>And in this age of anti-immigrant rancor, it's worth revisiting: Francie's story, and the choices her family made, will feel familiar to today's newest Americans. This epigraph, sadly missing from many recent editions of the book, still rings true: <br/><br/>"There is a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps. It grows up out of cellar gratings. It is the only tree that grows out of cement. It grows lushly . . . survives without sun, water, and seemingly without earth. It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it."

#book

Published 2026-01-07 12:11 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere