Smith, Betty. 1943. A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN. New York: Perennial Classics, 2005, c1943. ISBN 0060736267.
"One of the books of the century" is how the New York Public library describes A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The story of Francie Nolan and her family who live in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn at the turn of the century is an American classic. The reader gets a feel for what life was really like for the family as the events of their everyday life play out. Growing up is hard for the children as they struggle with hunger and poverty, an alcoholic father, and one hardship after another. A host of characters including their steely strong mother, a loyal extended family, and neighbors around every corner help them along the way. There are some joyful and tender moments as the family continues to live life and move forward, in spite of all the adversity. "One of my favorite parts in the book is when Francie finally gets kissed," says one teenage girl after reading the book.
When Francie and Neely venture out to get a Christmas tree, it is as if the reader is on the street with them.
"...the air was cold and still, and full of the pine smell and the smell of tangerines which appeared in stores only at Christmas time and the mean street was truly wonderful for a little while." (p.201)
The tree that grows in Brooklyn, is a scrappy old tree that only grows in poor neighborhoods. It survives no matter what, just like the people around it, in spite of everything they have to endure.
Engle, Margarita. 2009. THE SURRENDER TREE. New York: Random House/Listening Library. ISBN 9780307582997.
The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle is a collection of free verse poems that tells the story of war-torn Cuba in the struggle for independence from Spain. The recorded version is read by Cabrero, Vane Millon, Chris Rodriguez, and Roberto Santana. The story spans the years from 1851 to 1898, during which time three separate wars were fought between Cuba and Spain. It is told from the point of view of several characters. There is Rosa, a slave who eventually is freed, but still hunted, and who is also a healer; Lieutenant Death, a slave hunter who tracks down escaped slaves; Jose, another freed slave who Rosa eventually marries, and Silvia, an orphan and refugee who learns to be a healer. Rosa spends her entire life caring for slaves, refugees and soldiers who are injured in Cuba's violent fighting. She even nurses Lieutenant Death when he is injured trying to hunt her down. 
"One of the books of the century" is how the New York Public library describes A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The story of Francie Nolan and her family who live in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn at the turn of the century is an American classic. The reader gets a feel for what life was really like for the family as the events of their everyday life play out. Growing up is hard for the children as they struggle with hunger and poverty, an alcoholic father, and one hardship after another. A host of characters including their steely strong mother, a loyal extended family, and neighbors around every corner help them along the way. There are some joyful and tender moments as the family continues to live life and move forward, in spite of all the adversity. "One of my favorite parts in the book is when Francie finally gets kissed," says one teenage girl after reading the book. When Francie and Neely venture out to get a Christmas tree, it is as if the reader is on the street with them.
"...the air was cold and still, and full of the pine smell and the smell of tangerines which appeared in stores only at Christmas time and the mean street was truly wonderful for a little while." (p.201)
The tree that grows in Brooklyn, is a scrappy old tree that only grows in poor neighborhoods. It survives no matter what, just like the people around it, in spite of everything they have to endure.
Engle, Margarita. 2009. THE SURRENDER TREE. New York: Random House/Listening Library. ISBN 9780307582997.
The poet goes back and forth between describing the violence of the fighting and the beauty of the jungle. Rosa explains the slave hunting:
"When the slavehunter brings back
runaways he captures,
he receives seventeen silver pesos
per cimarron,
unless the cimarron is dead.
Four pesos is the price of an ear,
shown as proof that the runaway slave
died fighting, resisting capture.
(p.5)
Jose describes a forest scene:
Dark wings, a dim moonglow,
the darting bats,
not the big ones that suck blood
and eat insects,
but tiny ones, butterfly-sized,
the kind of bat that whisks out of caves to sip nectar
from night-blooming blossoms,
the fragrant white flowers my Rosa calls
Cinderella,
because they last only half a night.
Rosa leads the bats away from our hut.
They follow her light as she holds up a gourd
filled with fireflies, blinking.
I laugh, because our lives, here in the forest,
feel reversed--
we build a balm-thatched house to use a a hospital,
but everything wild that belongs outdoors
keeps moving inside,
and our patients, the wounded, feverish mambe rebels,
who should stay in their hammocks resting--
they keep getting up,
to go outside,
to watch Rosa, with her hands of light,
leading the bats far away.
(p.35-36)
It seems as if there will never be peace in Cuba. When the United States finally gets involved, Spain surrenders, but the Cuban rebel general is not even invited to the ceremonial surrender.
Jose watches from a distance.
They choose a majestic tree,
a ceiba, the kapok tree
revered by the Cubans,
a sturdy tree with powerful roots.
The choose the shade of spreading branches.
We have to watch from far away.
Even General Gomez,
after thirty years of leading our rebels,
even he is not invited
to the ceremonial surrender.
Spain cedes power before our eyes.
We can only watch from far away
as the Spanish flag is lowered
and the American flag glides upward.
Our Cuban flag
is still forbidden.
Booklist gave The Surrender Tree a starred review and said "the switching perspectives personalize the dramatic political history." The audio version creates more drama and makes the story come alive. The voice of Rosa is soft and weary; while Lieutenant Death's is filled with hate. The Surrender Tree also received a Newbery Honor and the Pura Belpre Award.
Nelson, Marilyn. 2005. A WREATH FOR EMMETT TILL. Ill. by Philippe Lardy. New York: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 139780618397525.
Emmett Till was a fourteen year old African-American boy from Chicago who was murdered by lynching in Mississippi in the summer of 1955, when he was there visiting relatives. The men who committed the horrendous crime were identified by witnesses, but a jury found them not guilty at trial. Marilyn Nelson wrote A Wreath for Emmett Till in honor of the martyr. The book is a collection of sonnets connected and arranged to create a heroic crown of sonnets. The last line of each poem becomes the first line of the next. The final poem, below, is a combination of the first lines of all the poems. According to the author, "the strict form became a kind of insulation, a way of protecting myself from the pain of the subject matter...."
Rosemary for remembrance, Shakespeare wrote.
If I could forget, believe me, I would.
Pierced by the screams of a shortened childhood,
Emmett Till's name still catches in my throat.
Mamie's one child, a body thrown to bloat,
Mutilated boy martyr. If I could
Erase the memory of Emmett's victimhood,
The memory of monsters...That bleak thought
Tears through the patchwork drapery of dreams.
Let me gather spring flowers for a wreath:
Trillium, apple blossoms, Queen Anne's lace,
Indian pipe bloodroot, white as moonbeams,
Like the full moon, which smiled calmly on his death,
Like his gouged eye, which watched boots kick his face.
A particularly painful passage in the fifth sonnet addresses Emmett’s mother:
Your only child, a body thrown to bloat,
Mother of sorrows, of justice denied.
Surely you must have thought of suicide,
seeing his gray flesh, chains around his throat.
At the end of the book is a “Who was Emmett Till?” section that further explains the events that led to his death; “Sonnet Notes” in which symbolism and literary references throughout the book are explained; “Artist’s Note” with information behind the illustrations in the book; and finally “References” directing readers to the website, The Murder of Emmett Till: www.pbs.org/wgbj/amex/till for more information.
