It's an Ailanthus (Tree of Heaven). They're very hardy trees, coming up in cracks in the pavement, even through gratings in the sidewalk. This is a much-beloved story of a girl in turn-of-the-20th-century Brooklyn, who, like the tree, surmounts harrowing obstacles -- poverty, hunger, a stern mother. Enormously descriptive of the Brooklyn of its time. Originally published in the 1940s.  (NYC56, $14.95)