Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

“Dear God,” she prayed, “let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry…have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere – be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.”

– Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” is a great American novel that is beloved by generations of Americans for the past 75+ years since its first publishing in 1943. Betty Smith’s semi-autobiographical historical fiction novel…