Q 01/05

In which tenement neighborhood, also the author's birthplace, do the Nolans live in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

A) Brooklyn Heights

B) Williamsburg

C) Greenpoint

D) Bushwick

Answer · why

B) Williamsburg

Williamsburg is where Betty Smith was born in 1896, and the top-floor tenement on Grand Street where her family settled became the model for the Nolan...

Q 02/05

Which hardy species native to China grows in the Nolans' yard and inspires the title of Betty Smith's Brooklyn novel?

A) Tulip tree

B) Plane tree

C) Tree of heaven

D) Maidenhair tree

Answer · why

C) Tree of heaven

Tree of heaven keeps re-sprouting however often it is cut down, which is why Smith made it the symbol of Francie's will to rise out of poverty.

Q 03/05

What irregular job does Francie's charming, hard-drinking father Johnny Nolan hold in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

A) Singing waiter

B) Saloon bartender

C) Streetcar conductor

D) Vaudeville dancer

Answer · why

A) Singing waiter

Singing waiter echoes real life: Betty Smith's own father waited tables, drank heavily and provided for his family only now and then.

Q 04/05

Besides the Bible, whose works does Katie Nolan read to her children a page a night in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

A) Charles Dickens

B) Robert Louis Stevenson

C) Walt Whitman

D) William Shakespeare

Answer · why

D) William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was the choice of Katie's immigrant mother, who could not read English herself but believed his plays were among the greatest work...

Q 05/05

How do Francie and Neeley win their Christmas tree in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

A) Reciting verses for the vendor

B) Standing firm as it is thrown

C) Sweeping the lot until midnight

D) Trading a week's junk money

Answer · why

B) Standing firm as it is thrown

Standing firm as it is thrown at them wins the biggest tree of all: by local custom, trees left unsold at midnight on Christmas Eve are hurled at chil...