Thirty of the best parents in literature

A few years ago at Mental Floss, Linda Rodriguez McRobbie tagged thirty of the best parents in literature. One parent and book on the list:

Katie Nolan // A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

In Betty Smith’s 1943 coming of age novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, protagonist Francie’s favorite parent, the parent who seems to get her, isn’t her mother, Katie; it’s her creative, sentimental father, Johnny. But after Johnny’s alcoholism consumes him, making it virtually impossible for him to hold a job, it’s Katie who keeps the family afloat. Katie’s grit and determination that her children should have a better life than she had is the kind of tough love that gives Francie the tools she’ll need to survive.

Read about the other entries on the list.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a book that changed Laura Lippman.

--Marshal Zeringue