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Kim
Rating:
 
Review
This is the story of Francie Nolan, living a very poor-in-money-but-rich-in-character life in Brooklyn. Her parents and brother, Neely, along with several other family members make this a wonderful story about a personable girl coming of age during the early 1900s. Francie and her family have more than their share of struggles, with her father's alcoholism, the lack of money and food much too often, and at one point, the need to move into a new neighborhood when her father's drunken behavior shames them. Throughout this book, Francie deals with school and neighborhood issues, family matters, her wants and her dreams as honestly and realistically as a pre-teen possibly can, and I realized when I finished this book that I wanted a sequel. I still want to know how Francie grew up, and what kind of great life she lived.
Best Line:
"She read everything she could find: trash, classics, time tables and the grocer's price list.
Suzanne
Rating:
Review
I took a liking to eleven year-old Francie Nolan almost immediately. She's plucky, smart, and kind (not to mention a bookworm, like me). This is her coming of age story, in an era (1912-1916) when people "came of age much younger than they do now. She grows up penniless in the slums of Brooklyn, between her charming, unreliable drunk of a father and her uneducated, resourceful mother who supports the family by the skin of its teeth. Her younger brother Neely and their Aunt Sissy, a "bad woman, play significant roles as well. Francie's life is based on the author's own childhood, and Smith triumphs in portraying the ever-present poverty in a matter-of-fact way so the book isn't depressing. Her part of Brooklyn is defined as a neighborhood where you can smell the sea but can't see it, like you can get a whiff of a better life but don't have it yourself. One of the most striking signs of this earlier era in New York is how Francie is the only child in her class at school who's not an immigrant. It's the shame of poverty, and the creative ways people manage not to be trapped by it, that still ring true in our own era.
Best Line:
"People always think that happiness is a faraway thing, thought Francie, "something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up; a place of shelter when it rains – a cup of strong hot coffee when you're blue; for a man, a cigarette for contentment; a book to read when you're alone – just to be with someone you love. (pg. 457)
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