Whistling Past The Graveyard

Whistling Past The Graveyard by Susan Crandall

That's what Daddy called it when you done something to stop thinking about your worstest fear.

Words to live by for nine-year-old Starla Claudelle.  My, my, how she misses Daddy who works on an oil rig far away in the Gulf, but most of all she longs to reunite with her Momma who left six years ago seeking fame and fortune as a singing sensation in Nashville. At least that's the story she has always believed.  Living in rural Mississippi in 1963 with her grandmother, Mamie, Starla is often in trouble. No doubt  she is a spitfire, but Starla is tired of Mamie's threats to send her to reform school because of her sassy mouth and disrespectful attitude.

Starla longs to attend the annual Fourth of July festivities and parade this summer.  Yet another series of misbehaviors finds her on house restriction-the wrath of Mamie is something to behold.  Now, she rationalizes, is the time to run away, find her beautiful Momma in Tennessee, and when Daddy joins them, her dream of belonging to a real family will come true.  And so her ill-fated journey begins. Along the way, she accepts a ride with an African-American woman named Eula who is traveling with a white baby.  The demise of Eula's alchoholic, abusive husband lead these three unlikely travelers to harrowing adventures with surprising results.

The Civil Rights Movement is at the heart of this novel.  Life in the deep South in the 1960s is described in detail as the reader is exposed to the prejudices and injustices in this period in time.  You will feel the fear, humiliation, and intimidation  these characters endured. You will feel the acceptance, kindness, and love that transcends the color of one's skin.  It is a story of one child's life changing forever  because someone cared.

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