Disappointed Francie's drive not accurately shown (spoilers)

I read the novel within the last 6 months, and not knowing what it was about other than it was on the suggested reading lists for entering college students, I was really drawn in by the novel, and it is one of favorites.

Personally, I identified with Francie, who in the book not only loved school and was good at it, but you could tell she was going to be the one to bring up the family's standard of living. She ended up in the novel making more than her brother Neely, which was an even bigger deal in the WWI era.

In the movie, her teen years were deleted, except for her first job done at McGarrity's Bar, offered out of sympathy over the passing of her father. But in the novel, she became the prize breadwinner with her firm knowledge of English and writing. She did not follow the transient factory working girls from dead-end job to dead-end job. She studied and tested out of high school in an era where most children were lucky to graduate from sixth grade. Talk about pulling herself up by her bootstraps!

I was disappointed the movie implies that Officer McShane's coming into the Nolans' lives by courting Katy saved the day. In the novel he married Katy and moved the whole family out of Brooklyn. Yes, even in the novel, McShane fully supports an offer of a college education for Neely and Francie, but they were making it on the kids' earnings before he approached Katy with his intention to marry her.