A GREAT, GREAT BOOK.

One of the best books I ever read was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. This novel about Francie Nolan's childhood in Brooklyn reminded me so much of my own adventures growing up in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and probably has the same effect on all its readers. Since reading it I have always felt that every library in America should take a quote from this great novel and have it displayed in large letters on the wall of its children's reading room. I think the quote is one of the most significant comments about the discoveries of youth. But sadly, though I have been in dozens of libraries, I have never seen this wonderful line printed anywhere.

"Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words."