Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall

Whistling Past the Graveyard is a great title for Susan Crandall's novel. Starla finds herself walking past a lot of frightening areas when she remembers being told that if you whistle while passing a graveyard it isn't quite as scary. I loved this book from beginning to end and read it within a couple of days. It's definitely going on my favorite list for this year. It would make a great book club read as it covers the racial injustices in the south and reminded me a little of Secret Life of Bees.

From the cover:
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. . .  She embarks on a road trip that will change her 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.