LifeMinute.tv Book Review of Whistling Past the Graveyard

“The year is 1963 in rural Mississippi and nine year old Starla Claudelle hates living with her strict grandmother. After getting in trouble and fearing she will be sent away to reform school, Starla decides to run away. She hopes to find the mother that abandoned her for a singing career in Nashville.

Starla is picked up by a black woman named Eula who is traveling with a white baby. Eula takes Starla home with her where her drunken husband Wallace threatens Starla’s life. When Eula comes to her rescue, there’s nothing left to do but go on the run, specifically to Nashville where Starla promises her mother will help them.

(A) great slice of Southern Fiction.

As they travel, Starla sees racism during the pre-civil rights south and learns about friendship and love. She’s a cute narrator, a little naïve at first but forced to grow up on her journey with Eula. This book reminded me a little of The Secret Life of Bees, it a great slice of Southern Fiction.”