Explore "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
SERENE was a word you could put to Brooklyn , New York . Especially in the summer of 1912. Somber, as a word, was better. But it did not apply to Williamsburg , Brooklyn . Prairie was lovely and Shenandoah had a beautiful sound, but you couldn't fit those words into Brooklyn . Serene was the only word for it; especially on a Saturday afternoon in summer.
Late in the afternoon the sun slanted down into the mossy yard belonging to Francie Nolan's house, and warmed the worn wooden fence. Looking at the shafted sun, Francie had that same fine feeling that came when she recalled the poem they recited in school.