Betty Smith Reading Garden – Brooklyn Public Library – Leonard Branch: The Betty Smith Reading Garden was created by the Friends of Leonard Library with the belief that every member of our community have the opportunity to learn from nature itself. The Betty Smith Reading Garden is an outdoor urban pollinator habitat that feeds and grows the community’s collective soul, inviting exploration for those in need of nature’s therapy. Newtown Creek Alliance installed a weather station on the roof that monitors meteorological data and is accessed by local students in public school computer labs.
Partners:
- Newtown Creek Alliance and http://www.newtowncreekalliance.org/
- Brooklyn Public Library – Leonard Branch
- Friends of Leonard Library
The Legacy of Betty Smith’s “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” at Leonard Library:
Leonard Library – Branch History
Betty Smith’s daughter plants a tree at Leonard Library – A Tree And A Legacy Grow In Brooklyn
Leonard Library Designated Literary Landmark by the American Library Association
75th Anniversary Celebration of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn”
Greenpoint Post article by Laura Hanrahan,“Williamsburg’s Leonard Library, of ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn’, Earns Literary Landmark Status”
Literary Traveler article by Amy Hamblen, “Betty Smith Knew Brooklyn”
New York Times article by Robert Cornfield, “The Tree Still Grows in Brooklyn”
Brooklyn Nature Club 