A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

     A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith is the heart wrenching journey of one young girl and her immigrant family as they reach for the American dream.  Smith captures more than the poverty of Brooklyn during the first decades of the twentieth century; she captures the indignity that the poor face as they live at the mercy of those who own everything as they hang on to the edges of life with their dreams.  She captures the determined steel in the characters’ survival instincts as they refuse to be corroded by the toxic fumes of oppression; she  does this as they maintain family pride with love and humor.
     Smith makes the reader aware that in poor communities, intimate noises come across narrow spaces between crowded housing and linger on air waves; it is where little girls and little boys find their role models as they gaze into neighbors' lives; it is where hands reach out to catch those who stumble.  It is also where those hands find ways to push each other toward their dreams.  They leave connections humming.  Life is palpable!
     The reader chokes on swollen emotions but, before they overwhelm the heart and inner strength, love refuses to die.  Johnny, the father, is the gentle beauty that soothes Fancie; Neeley is the little brother that gives her life meaning; Katie,  her mother, is that flexible piece of steel that drives determination into them all.  And Sissy!  Sissy is that beautiful aunt that everyone loves; she is the aunt that allows some rules to break; she is youth and, no one can resist her temptation.
     Fancie's story, childhood to woman, holds the novel together.  Her tree is not only planted in the soil, but it is planted in your heart, and in her heart.  The tree refuses to die; it endures and endures and eventually it thrives.
     

An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowki

          The Invisible Thread is a true story.  It reveals the profound change that the bond of friendship has on two individuals.
          It is New York; it is 1986.  Laura, a successful white young woman is a lonely individual.  One day she makes a decision that some of us toy with for a moment or two.  Maurice, a young African American boy without dreams, meets Laura one day on the corner of a busy New York street.  They both feel the risk, but follow their hearts and take a chance on spirit. 
          Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski weave language in its simplicity to reveal the most complex of human emotions.  As the reader follows the stories of Laura and Maurice, it becomes obvious that the outward material trappings of humans do not reveal what lies in the hearts.
          For Laura...  "All we knew was that once my father's rages had started, they could not be stopped.  Most nights we'd be in bed when he arrived at midnight or later.  We'd listen for the telltale sounds - the way he slammed the front door or the clinking of the ice in a glass in the kitchen..... Sometimes it would just start."
          For Maurice... "  As she injected, she'd say, "Oh, that's good," and her head would tilt back.  She would hum a tune and wave her hand through the air to the melody, and she would drift, drift, drift away until there was no pain at all.  For Maurice, these were the best moments - when his mother found her peace.  It was moments that came before it, when she was fidgety, angry, hopelessly restless, that upset Maurice ......"
         Laura lives on Broadway in a trendy studio; Maurice Lives two blocks away in a welfare hotel.  Their paths cross; their lives change as they recognize something similar in each other.  They form a relationship and the friendship helps them sort through their pain and, over time, they accompany each other on a path of hope, beauty, and family.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

       Metaphors ... personification...... figurative language, Markus Zusak makes art out of words and he uses his style to give a bittersweet and unusual twist to the telling of The Book Thief.
       The narrator's voice will surprise and intrigue; it will strike fear in the heart, but as the reader accepts the voice it will slowly seduce and intoxicate as it pours into the mind.
       Set in Germany in the midst of human betrayal, the most unusual friendships are born.  Bonds of love solidify relationships woven between the most unlikely of subjects.  And, friendship gives birth to hope; and hope gives birth to bravery; and bravery saves lives.
       Zusak pulls the reader into a puzzle made of pieces of rythmic poetry and colorful events.  He uses the most unlikely narrator to capture the reader's sense of mystery and horror.  Yet, when the horror dissipates the reader is clearly aware of the absolute logic in the argument at the end of this tale; the reader accepts the entire cycle of life and moves on.

Thank you to my English 103 student, Berkley, who suggested this book.

Don't Let Me Go by Catherine Ryan Hyde

     Don't Let Me Go tugs on the heart strings with wonder; it creates smile after unexpected smile.  Catherine Ryan Hyde brings the story of drug addiction and its impact on a girl child to our eyes in a warm pool of love, determination, trust, and commitment.
     The story takes place in a small insignificant apartment building lost in the invisibility of marginal poverty.  Hyde gives us the haunting yet exhilarating voice of a brave young girl and the voice of an insecure and once popular dancing stage performer who lost his nerve and freedom to wonder the world.
     The "normalizing" of abandonment and isolation of persons in poverty is turned on its face by Hyde.  She places the reader in the hallway of closed doors and bangs on them with vigor as she captures the mind of a young girl teetering between the lightheartedness of childhood and the maturity that buffers her as she faces harsh and possibly emotionally damaging circumstances.
    Hyde creatively pours words into the cold compartmentalized environment and leaves in their wake a pulsing warmth that stays with the reader for the entire story. 
    The cast of characters in the apartment complex rise above and beyond expectations as they confront their own demons in order to save a young woman from what could be a dangerous future.  They build trust, friendship, and love as they make commitments and bond over a promise to keep her "safe."

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

     The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, is a book of a young boy's sudden plunge into reality.  He is challenged by emotional trauma and the reader is confronted by a child's innocent depression and result of post traumatic stress.
     The love of his life; the woman who gave him meaning dies a tragic death.  And, the trauma has a ripple effect throughout Theo's life.  In his opinion, he has no father, and he is all alone in the world.  On the way to foster care, Theo is "saved" by a wealthy family and he makes relationships that, in some respects, soothe his wounds, but also they create longings that are not necessarily achievable.
     As Theo story continues, the sadness in his soul reflects in a controlled desperation that drives his human connections.  He is "adopted" by a someone eccentric antique furniture artist.  He gives his heart in secret to a young woman who has ideas of her own.  Over time, he encounters his father and makes attempts at a new family.
     Crime and drugs enter his story as he struggles to stay safe; his honesty is challenged.  Along the way he plays with the idea of marriage.  He wants to create family.  As his story culminates, Theo experiences many human challenges; he experiences highs and lows; and he reaches out for understanding.

The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom

     The Kitchen House: A Novel by Kathleen Grissom is a story of American history.  Grissom takes the reader on a journey that is filled with the bones of innocent Americans.  She reveals layers of oppression that continues to tear holes in the fabric of American culture.  Her novel is filled with characters' tales that run thick with the blood of humans.

     The story starts in 1791, a child is on a boat full of desperate immigrants in debt to an American merchants and plantation owners.  These indentured laborers are Irish.  There is sickness and her parents die; her brother is sold; she survives.  Grissom's words draws tears as the child sees others love and she longs for someone to stroke her hair and touch her cheeks.  She hurts !  In a fog of confusion, the white child finds herself in the kitchen of a plantation where she is given as an "adopted" child to the black slave family.

     The story shocks as it should.  It reveals the horror of human sadism.

     Abinia grows up in the midst of strong and fierce love.  As a child she bonds with her new family.  She depends on them for sanity.  As a white child she learns the multiple meanings of freedom and trust.  She learns that nothing is what it seems.  Relationships cross boundaries and secrets are buried deep in souls.  Death is a daily experience and she sees that the slaves have no reason to trust.  As time goes on Abinia is faced with decisions that she experiences as if skewered by hot steel.
     Abinia can never get accustomed to the structure of slave culture.  Therefore, mistakes are made and lives are put at risk.  Her love of family is reciprocated by those who will give their lives for each other and for freedom.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

     Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline opens one of the many doors to the world of the orphan in America.  In this case, the voice is that of a young girl whose world is turned inside out by the deaths of her family members.
     The story touches the heart as the reader witnesses the bare bones of emotional abandonment and confusion.  The young narrator's struggle to make sense of a lost life and, at the same time her strive for a measure of control in the new world of foster families, grips the reader with a pain that is deep and profound.  The story, along with the sudden and unfathomable loneliness of death and abandonment, gives the reader access to a world beyond the front door of foster care.  The lesson that seeps into the heart is that there are precarious places for a child and that the safety of children cannot be taken for granted.
     On the other hand, Kline uses the word to place a hand on the wound as she weaves the most unexpected friendship between a child on the verge of being jaded by unfortunate circumstances with her elderly friend and "savior."  Actually, the two women form a bond that allows them to heal old wounds.
    As the friendship progresses, Kline, along with the reader, weaves layer after layer of emotional warmth and at the end of this beautiful story, the bare bones emotional skeleton has grown layers of rich flesh infused with the forces of love, friendship, and acceptance.