At a recent family gathering, someone posed a question: “What is the best book you have ever read?” My 14- year-old granddaughter Emma, an avid reader, said, “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” I’d never read this children’s classic so, me being me and Amazon being Amazon, I immediately bought it for my Kindle. Then it was off to the races or, more accurately, the marathon as the book runs nearly 500 pages.

Wow! “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” is a must-read for people of all ages. The author (Betty Smith) immerses us into the life of a young girl (Francie) in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. The book sugarcoats nothing, covering issues ranging from alcoholism, poverty and divorce to rape, birth and death. We admire Francie’s grit as she remains ever loyal to her alcoholic father. We feel her pain when her first crush drops her and, later, her elation when a handsome responsible older boy, takes a shine to her. We learn about her love of books and her passion for writing. Francie is wise one day and lost the next, but she’s always very real to the reader. Several sections read like poetry as Francie talks to God or wonders what it would be like not to be poor. If you’ve never read this book, read it now. If you’ve read it before, consider reading it again.

Three other books have topped my reading list to date this summer:

“Transatlantic,” by National Book Award-winning Irish writer Colum McCann (“Let the Great World Spin”). Amazon’s synopsis calls the book, “a soaring novel that spans continents and leaps centuries, and unites a cast of deftly rendered characters, both real and imagined.” The sections on Frederick Douglas, an African-American social reformer, writer and orator who escaped slavey, and Maine’s own Senator George Mitchell, who brokered the peace talks in Northern Ireland, are pure gold.

“Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania,” by Erik Larson, noted author of such bestsellers as “The Devil in the White City,” and “In the Garden of the Beast.” Even though you already know the ending (the Lusitania goes down), Larson keeps you engaged to the end, while imparting fascinating facts about the culture of the times as well as sea warfare during World War I.

“The Last Lion: Winston Spenser Churchill, Volume 3: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965,” by William Manchester and Paul Read. I confess that reading this 1,000- page tome involved a fair amount of skimming. I did, however, slow down to read the “good parts,” especially about Winston’s personal musings and quirky habits. In addition to a prodigious intellect and indomitable courage, this historical figure possessed a great love of life and, it must be said, drink. You have to love a guy who lies in his bathtub and dictates letters and manuscripts to a typist while drinking brandy and smoking a cigar. Churchill was clearly the right man at the right place at the right time.

I was at the right place at the right time when Emma cited “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” as her favorite book. We oldsters can learn a lot from young people if we take the time to listen. Hmmmm….. I wonder if, 60 years from now, Emma will get a fine reading recommendation from her grandchild. That would be very cool.

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David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary and suggestions for future “Just a Little Old” columns at [email protected].