For those of you who like a slow paced, colorful book, Chalktown by Melinda Haynes is for you. Ms. Haynes is a master at description and lets you see in your mind’s eye the Mississippi area that she loves. In this novel sixteen-year-old Hezekiah Sheehand travels down a dirt road with his mentally challenged five-year-old brother, Yellababy, on his back. Ms Haynes uses Hezekiah to heip you visualize the hardships of life and how people could disappear in the backwoods of southern Mississippi.

Upon Hezekiah and Yellababy’s arrival in Chalktown, (so named because the inhabitants use chalk boards to communicate to each other) they become squators in an abandoned house. In so doing they also find a home in this small town whose inhabitants all have secrets of their own and are united in a conspiracy to keep the death of a young woman and her still born baby unsolved.

I personally think that this novel would be more suited for discussion in a college English class than for the average reader as I found it’s plot to be quite slow and unstimulating. The perfect book to read before bed.

[tags]book, review, Chalktown, Melinda, Haynes, discussion material, slow-paced[/tags]