Archives for March 2015

It is time to revel the GingerScraps book club selection for April, 2015!

Our April 2015 book is…. Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall.

From Amazon the description of this book is as follows,

“In the summer of 1963, nine-year-old Starla Claudelle runs away from her strict grandmother’s Mississippi home. Starla’s destination is Nashville, where her mother went to become a famous singer, abandoning Starla when she was three. Walking a lonely country road, Starla accepts a ride from Eula, a black woman traveling alone with a white baby. Now, on the road trip that will change her life forever, Starla sees for the first time life as it really is—as she reaches for a dream of how it could one day be.”

Here is what others are saying about Whistling Past the Graveyard

“A coming-of-age story as well as a luminous portrait of courage and the bonds of friendship. . . Susan Crandall tells young Starla’s story with pitch-perfect tone, evoking 1963 Mississippi and its struggles with a deft hand. I laughed and cried at Starla’s keen observances of life and family and the sometimes blurred edges of justice. Like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help, Whistling Past the Graveyard is destined to become a classic.” (New York Times bestselling author Karen White)

“Crandall delivers big with a coming-of-age story set in Mississippi in 1963 and narrated by a precocious 9-year-old…Young Starla is an endearing character whose spirited observations propel this nicely crafted story.” (Kirkus)

“Starla’s fiery independence makes her a likable narrator.” (Publishers Weekly)

“A delightfully complex story about defying the odds to find the gifts we have tucked inside us.” (Shelf Awareness)

“This is a work of imagination in the mind of a 9-year-old child that might remind you of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird or Kathryn Stockett’s The Help… It’s a real winner!” (Liz Smith The Chicago Tribune)

“A luminous portrait of courage and the bonds of friendship, this coming of age story is as endearing and spirited as they come.” (Shape Magazine)

“This coming-of-age story is a must for fans of Kathryn Stockett’s The Help or Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird.” (Working Mother Magazine)

“It’s not easy to keep such a young narrator convincing for more than 300 pages… Readers will take to Starla and be caught up in her story.” (Mary Ellen Quinn Booklist)

“Crandall threads historical detail throughout the book as the struggles of the civil rights movement are vividly portrayed…Crandall’s young narrator captures the reader’s heart.” (Library Journal)

I hope my fellow book lovers join us in the GingerScraps forum to discuss Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall.