Tree of Hope

Tree of Hope is a book about a girl named Florrie who grew up during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a time when a lot of people were poor and many people lost the jobs they had. In the story Florrie's father once was an actor at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, New York. Now that the Depression has hit Florrie's father is without a job because people don't have money to go see the shows. The only thing her father has to remember about the good times at the theatre is a tree. In the book it is called The Tree of Hope. Her father tells her about the tree and then they wish on it, they wished times went back to the way they were. Then a director Orson Welles plans to do a play at the Lafayette. Florrie thinks this has happened because of her and her father's wish. The only thing about it is that the play is MacBeth; MacBeth is a play about white people. People who knew that Florrie's father was auditioning for the play would say, "Shakespeare's a white man, we oughta only be doin' written `bout us. Them people (the white director's) at the Lafayette've come to Harlem just to laugh at us!" This statement seemed to get to Florrie's father but he said, "There will be plays written about us. This is Harlem's MacBeth-you'll see." To find out what else happens you will have to read the book.