Blaglash.com

I recently read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and even though it has the word Brooklyn in the titles I was surprised to see it was practically set in the neighborhood I live in now, and even though it took place about 100 years ago, the book mentioned things like McCarren Park and Cheap Charlies that still exist today.  I was actually entranced and read the book in a day, and got a lot out of it.  Mostly that I should teach my children to read as early as possible, tell them how important education is, and have them do their own chores everyday.  And not marry a drunkard.

There were a lot of issues and conflicts in this book that still exist today, mostly racism and poverty; but things I haven’t really been exposed to growing up in the suburbs.  Things I’d never really seen until I did move to Brooklyn.  Even though the neighborhoods aren’t so clear cut anymore, Polish people still live in Greenpoint and Russian people still live in Bay Ridge, and people separate based on where they’re from.  People live around other people who can speak their language and make them feel comfortable.  A source of pride in the book is Americanism, being born in America and speaking English fluently.  And the beginnings of that are very New York, but now that patriotism, and sense of entitlement that leads to exclusion, has spread.

In elementary school when you learn America is/was a melting pot would be a good time to read this book.