What’s your favourite “coming of age” book?

I've just finished reading West with Giraffes: A Novel by Lynda Rutledge and I absolutely loved it.

It reminded me very much of another favourite, A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

Both stories are not only about the protagonists but the places that shape them and their famiies.

In a Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Francie's grandparents are first generation immigrants to America and the book chronicles the shaping of the city and the country they've emigrated to.

In West with Griffafes, we meet Woody who has escaped the horrors of Texas, a Dust Bowl state and dreams of going west to Calafornia.