• Whistling Past the Graveyard

  • By: Susan Crandall
  • Narrated by: Amy Rubinate
  • Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (3,939 ratings)

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Whistling Past the Graveyard  By  cover art

Whistling Past the Graveyard

By: Susan Crandall
Narrated by: Amy Rubinate
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Publisher's summary

In the summer of 1963, nine-year-old spitfire Starla Claudelle runs away from her strict grandmother's Mississippi home. Starla hasn't seen her momma since she was three - that's when Lulu left for Nashville to become a famous singer. Starla's daddy works on an oil rig in the Gulf, so Mamie, with her tsk-tsk sounds and her bitter refrain of "Lord, give me strength," is the nearest thing to family Starla has. After being put on restriction yet again for her sassy mouth, Starla is caught sneaking out for the Fourth of July parade. She fears Mamie will make good on her threat to send Starla to reform school, so Starla walks to the outskirts of town, and just keeps walking....

If she can get to Nashville and find her momma, then all that she promised will come true: Lulu will be a star. Daddy will come to live in Nashville, too. And her family will be whole and perfect. Walking a lonely country road, Starla accepts a ride from Eula, a black woman traveling alone with a white baby. The trio embarks on a road trip that will change Starla's life forever. She sees for the first time life as it really is - as she reaches for a dream of how it could one day be.

©2013 Susan Crandall (P)2013 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Critic reviews

"Starla's fiery independence makes her a likable narrator." ( Publishers Weekly)
"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." ( Booklist)
"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." (Karen White, New York Times best-selling author)

What listeners say about Whistling Past the Graveyard

Average customer ratings
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  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    2,341
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Story
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Loved loved loved

I loved this book so much. I didn’t want it to end. What a heart felt story of a little girl who just wanted to be loved. She saw only the color of love.

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Loved this book

so good. story. character development. narrator. all of it so good. the depiction of what life was like in the south in the 60s. what it was like for white and black people, especially women. I loved it.

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Original

This was a great listen. Definitely will be looking for more books by this author! It had everything! Was sad when it was over.

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A Beautifully written story that touched my heart over and over.

I loved the everything about this book and the audio recording. Susan Crandall is a fantastic author and storyteller! Kudos to the narrator also.

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Great story, great performance, great characters

I loved the story, except that it has a slow start. The main character is great, I couldn't believe that a 10 year old would be interesting and smart; I usually prefer at least a teenager's view of things. In some parts, it tells the problems with colored people, and it's astounding to hear what they go through. The narrator does a really good job reading this book. Highly recommend it.

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Excellent book!

Great read and wonderful writing! A must read for you and an excellent literary teaching tool!

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A good read.

The performance was better than the story but it was an enjoyable book. Oppression viewed through the eyes of a child.

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    4 out of 5 stars

A glimpse of a life of a troubled child in the South

It seems like just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong for this child who is in search of someone who will love her as she is.

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Good Book!

Reminded me of The Help and To Kill a Mockingbird. Good story and held my attention. I would like to read more like this.

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This was a perfect coming-of-age book.

I absolutely loved this book. It was heartwarming, sweet, and an incredible coming-of-age story! I 100% recommend it. I have read 110 books this year, and this one is at the top of the list!

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