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Oct 04, 2013Bearwomyn rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
One of my top ten reads this year. This is a brilliant book. While it is a good story, an engaging quick read, the social implications/revelations/abominations are graceful, critical and "hearable", in my view, because they come from the thoughts of a child. Down south, a young white girl - Starla, bright, spirited and precocious is bone-tired of her domineering grandmother, of whose care she is in. She runs away...without really planning to, or thinking it through. She just begins to walk. Along the road she meets a middle aged black woman who takes her in, along with the other white child, a baby, that she, well, sorta 'stole.' Together they take an journey through the deep south during the times of white-water-fountains, lunch-counter-sit-ins, blacks-to-the-back-of-the-bus experiences. Our young lady learns how dangerous skin color can be, the absurdities, the realities. We listen to her mind tangled with questions, outrages, confusion...very much thoughts I believe many of us adults may have...presented with such wholesome simplicity that it is heart wrenching. We have an absent oil-rig-working-daddy, murder, swamps, shut doors, evil eyes, a baby in a suitcase...a grand ol' oprey mama, worn shoes, high fevers, cold nights under the stars, fear, love and wonder. Our girl is courageous. She made me proud. She squeezed my heart. My man and I both read this book and we both were moved to tears in the end pages, a rarity for both of us. Beautifully done. Well well worth it. Will be thinking about this book for a long long time. _ "My daddy says that when you do somethin' to distract you from your worstest fears, it's like whistlin' past the graveyard. You know, making a racket to keep the scaredness and the ghosts away. He says that's how we get by sometimes."