Fascinating from the start, The Sweet Shade of a Chinaberry Tree, by Janice Parrish, is certainly hard to classify. A creative fiction based on the authors own experiences while growing up in Southern States in the tumultuous 1960s a time of great change for America - could also be classified as an inter-racial romance or possibly a drama.

The Sweet Shade of a Chinaberry Tree involves multicultural and social issues, true young love, the relationship between the main character and her parents and so much more. The setting is based in Alabama, USA during the summer of 1963.

The novel follows 19-year-old Gaynell McGowan from the moment she returns to her home town during a summer break from college where she had learned all kinds of novel ideas that would forever alter her view of the people she once believed in and knew so well. Failing to fully complete her college course, Gaynell is assigned a paper, which lead her into the most tender and truest of loves anyone could ever experience. Readers will thrive on the thrilling, secretive, inter-racial romance and the incredible sacrifice Parrishs characters endure.

A town, stubborn in their ways, is afraid of racial change and this fear empowers a threat so great that it has begun to rip the town apart and shatter families. The small town is facing the challenge of having the first school in Alabama become integrated with black students. Under orders from the government, bigoted and heartless behavior toward a set of people who just happen to have a darker skin begins to tear the town apart. So-called "normal, god-fearing" individuals strengthen their resistance and suppression, while a few individuals turn to hateful, murderous, cross-burning tactics.

My respect for the author grew when I read her statement "In Gaynell McGowan, I have found the voice to express the inhumanity we Southerners covered with good manners and lace tablecloths."

So many aspects of this time period and radical change are covered in her fantastic array of characters that I could not possibly do it justice in this book review. All that I can say is that this book has found a spot on my shelves indefinitely and the characters are locked in my mind forever. While I did not spend time in the Southern US, I did grow up around those that struggled with this issue and feel the way this author portrayed the people could not have been more realistic or more heart-felt.

The Sweet Shade of a Chinaberry Tree would be an excellent historical fiction movie not just because of the first hand experience, but also due to the excellent research the author put in to get the right feel for this dramatic period.

ISBN#: 0-7599-4807-0
Author: Janice Ward Parrish
Publisher: Hard Shell Word Factory
Published: 2006

Lillian Brummet

Lillian Brummet

Co-author of the book Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her impact on the environment rash Talk embarks on frugal and conscious living techniques for the individual. We focus on the reuse of 'waste' materials and reducing consumption of resources. Trash Talk is written to empower people to feel more positive about their worth as individuals in a hectic, expensive, environmentally stressed world. We show how to make a real and visible difference, while saving money at the same time. Publisher: Publish America Released: July 21, 2004

Author of Towards Understanding (ISBN#1-4137-9337-1) - This book of 120 poems is written in chronological order. It is a story of survival, of breaking the chains of inner demons, finding value and purpose in life and growing towards understanding - but not quite reaching it. The poems also embrace the environment and question society. Towards Understanding will reach today's female audience because it is a true chronological story of a young woman growing through childhood trauma, being independent at age 13, moving through healing, finding self-worth and questioning society. I truly believe, and hope, that the book can help other women. Publisher: Publish America. Earliest Estimated Release: Late December, 2005