Chinaberries and Beyond

<p>Patricia is born during WWII when racial segregation is a way of life particularly in the south. A few years earlier in the small cotton mill town her father's poor judgment forces her parents and eventually their eight children to live in a crude unpainted three-room dwelling located in an isolated area of four houses for African Americans. They have no electricity or running water and a stonecovered spring in the woods becomes a special place for mischief. A single tree a chinaberry adjacent to the house serves many purposes.</p><p>Home church and school are the Littletons' family core while their experiences are laced with fun humor and mischief. However when temperamental Hazel an adult bully moves next door there are conflicts which escalate into unnerving dangerous situations especially with Patricia's easygoing soft-spoken mother. Hazel ridicules Patricia who is smart timid and labeled a crybaby and stubborn in school. By high school Patricia blossoms and becomes popular but later her father warns her of wooden nickels. www.chinaberriesandbeyond.com</p>