Like many other Southern booksellers, I was quite taken with Whistling Past the Graveyard and it will be a staff pick when it’s released this summer.

I got so attached to the strong female characters in this quintessentially Southern novel. Truth be told: I’m sometimes wary of Civil Rights-era novels focusing on race and written by white women (think THE HELP, which I in fact really liked), but Crandall is a strong storyteller with genuine empathy, not that special brand of Southern ‘bless her heart’ condescension, for her characters. A fast-paced story that will leave readers quite satisfied.

For the working mom who loved The Help and To Kill a Mockingbird: Whistling Past the Graveyard, by Susan Crandall. 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.

8 Summer Books pick

I want to start off by saying this book was an absolute pleasure to read! I finished it in one day, unable to put down my downloaded copy (on my very cumbersome laptop), during an hour and a half ferry and hour long bus ride!

This book alternated between making me laugh and causing me to tear up (particularly in chapter 29, in which the climax is reached). I ranted and raved to my co-blogger and book-reviewer, Samantha, all day while reading this, boasting about my amazing find on NetGalley.com, and how excited I was to review this book. I took notes every few minutes and often sat open mouthed while I read. Immediately after reading the last page I started my review, to be sure of its accuracy.

I loved this book and will be reading it again…many times.

The language from page one was alluring, and realistic. It was no stretch of the imagination to believe I was reading the account of a nine (and a half)-year-old southern girl from 1963. Not only that, but I added my own southern twang to the words in my head, and am still dropping my mental ‘g’s.

There is no comparable literary character I can stand beside Starla Claudelle. She is truly a stand alone protagonist in my mind. Her father, Porter, is a lot like Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird, an appropriate comparison, I think, due to the similar nature and contents of the two books respectful story lines. Likewise, Eula is comparable to Aibileen Clark of The Help (although it must be noted I have not read the book, only seen the movie), but even with similar characters to attest to the personalities of Crandall’s literary children, the characters of Whistling Past the Graveyard were pure magic, a person’s essence truly captured within the pages of this novel and successfully portrayed in 3D in my mind.

I loved this book and will be reading it again…many times.

Crandall threads historical detail throughout the book as the struggles of the civil rights movement are vividly portrayed through Eula’s difficulties as well as those of minor characters… Crandall’s young narrator captures the reader’s heart.

Crandall… delivers big with a coming-of-age story set in Mississippi in 1963 and narrated by a precocious 9-year-old.

Due in part to tradition, intimidation and Jim Crow laws, segregation is very much ingrained into the Southern lifestyle in 1963. Few white children question these rules, least of all Starla Caudelle, a spunky young girl who lives with her stern, unbending grandmother in Cayuga Springs, Miss., and spends an inordinate amount of time on restriction for her impulsive actions and sassy mouth. Starla’s dad works on an oil rig in the Gulf; her mother abandoned the family to seek fame and fortune in Nashville when Starla was 3. In her youthful innocence, Starla’s convinced that her mother’s now a big singing star, and she dreams of living with her again one day, a day that seems to be coming more quickly than Starla’s anticipated.

Young Starla is an endearing character whose spirited observations propel this nicely crafted story.

Convinced that her latest infraction is about to land her in reform school, Starla decides she has no recourse but to run away from home and head to Nashville to find her mom. Ill prepared for the long, hot walk and with little concept of time and distance, Starla becomes weak and dehydrated as she trudges along the hot, dusty road. She gladly accepts water and a ride from Eula, a black woman driving an old truck, and finds, to her surprise, that she’s not Eula’s only passenger. Inside a basket is a young white baby, an infant supposedly abandoned outside a church, whom Eula calls James. Although Eula doesn’t intend to drive all the way to Nashville, when she shows up at her home with the two white children, a confrontation with her husband forces her into becoming a part of Starla’s journey, and it’s this journey that creates strong bonds between the two: They help each other face fears as they each become stronger individuals. Starla learns firsthand about the abuse and scare tactics used to intimidate blacks and the skewed assumption of many whites that blacks are inferior beings. Assisted by a black schoolteacher who shows Eula and Starla unconditional acceptance and kindness, both ultimately learn that love and kinship transcend blood ties and skin color.

Young Starla is an endearing character whose spirited observations propel this nicely crafted story.

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.