过年是越来越没意思了！
吃吃吃？身上肉肉眼瞅着长！
刷刷刷？眼镜度数眼瞅着长！
——不如，干点别的？
赵老师在这里安利一本高中生可以无障碍阅读的英文小说——
豆瓣评分8.7分！
看中译本没意思，还是看英文原著吧！
这是维基百科的简介——
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a semi-autobiographical 1943 novel written by Betty Smith. The story focuses on an impoverished but aspirational adolescent girl and her family living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City, during the first two decades of the 20th century.
豆瓣的简介：
这是一本关于生存的书，讲述阅读如何让卑微的生命变得高贵，讲述知识如何改变人的修为与命运，讲述家庭的力量如何支撑孩子实现自己的梦想。
二十世纪初的纽约布鲁克林，是一片宁静的乐土，而在这里，一颗本应无忧无虑的幼小心灵却要被迫去面对艰辛的生活，体味成长过程中的无奈百味：母亲偏爱她的弟弟，父亲深爱她却英年早逝，家境清贫，在学校饱受轻鄙……面对如此坎坷人生，她也曾苦闷、忧愁，却始终保持着那份尊严和知识改变命运的信念。人生的另一扇大门终于为她打开。
我想，在我成长过程中让我最受感动的一本书就是《布鲁克林有棵树》了。
——奥普拉·温弗瑞
如果错过了《布鲁克林有棵树》，你将失去一次重要的人生体验……这是一个深刻理解童年与家庭关系的动人故事。
——《纽约时报》
《布鲁克林有棵树》是一本让人洞悉个体如何能变得更坚强、坚定、睿智的书。最重要的，它谈及人要生存所需的人格力量，也就成了一篇关于爱、信任与磨难的文章。正是在读完这本书后，我平生第一次认识到，尽管磨难是一次艰难的考验，但它确实是个人所能体验的最积极的人生影响因素之一。
——美国读者
关于作者——
贝蒂·史密斯（Betty Smith ）(1896–1972) 是一名小说家与编剧，也是洛克菲勒和剧作家协会奖学金的获得者。她出生于纽约布鲁克林，是德国移民的后代。她在布鲁克林的贫穷环境中长大，这个经历为她的处女作《布鲁克林有棵树》（A Tree Grows in Brooklyn）提供了框架。
她的小说《布鲁克林有棵树》、《明天会更好》（Tomorrow Will Be Better），《清晨欢愉》（Joy in the Morning）和《玛姬，就现在》（Maggie-Now）不断赢得全球成千上万的读者的心，引起他们的无限遐想。
维基百科——
Betty Smith (December 15, 1896–January 17, 1972) was an American author. She is best known for her 1943 novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which became an immediate bestseller and is now considered one of the great American novels of the 20th century. The book was later adapted to the screen in the movie of the same title, directed by Elia Kazan, and starring Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn and Peggy Ann Garner.
赵老师在1993年中关村的跳蚤市场买到这本书，是从美国一个高中的图书馆带出来的，一口气读完，手不释卷！
这里摘一段作者的话，你尝尝先——
AUTHORS NOTE
An obscure person who becomes a public figure overnight sometimes has minor legends grow up about his unknown years. It has been so with me. It is told that I had an eerie habit of walking through the dark village streets each night at midnight in the company of a big, black, spooky dog. It is said I worked up inspiration that way to write A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
I did walk through the village each midnight with a black dog. But I was only going to the post office to see if I had a letter in the last mail. The dog, a gentle Labrador retriever, was a friend who nightly waited for me at the corner because he enjoyed a companionable walk to town.
I was lonesome in that time before I had a book published. Like Thomas Wolfe, who as an undergraduate here hung around this same Chapel Hill post office wishing hed get some mail, I, too, went down to watch them put up the midnight mail hoping someone had written to me. There were seldom any letters---only bills.
I don take that walk any more because now, any time of the day, Box 405 is filled with letters from people who have read my book. The letters come in from the cities, towns, villages, and rural districts of America. They used to come from foxholes, battleships, hospitals, recreational centers, and from training camps. They still come from the zones of occupation. One came from a notorious gangsters death cell saying that my book was the last he was destined to read in this world. One came from a woman who had just given birth to a child; she wrote she was very poor but her newborn would not lack wealth of tenderness and understanding if she could help it.
Most letters begin: "This is my first fan letter. Ive just read your book and I must tell you..."They tell me: "I was a girl like Francie Nolan." Or: "My family had the same kind of struggle. My mother was like Katie." Or: "Ive never lived in Brooklyn but someone must have told you the story of my life because thats what you wrote." And even: "Im boiling mad. You wrote my book before I had a chance to get round to it."
......
