Whistling In the Dark (2007) (edit title/settings)

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Thally O'Malley: The main character and narrator of the story.
• Troo O'Malley: Nell and Sally's sister. Her given name is Margaret. Troo is short for Trooper. Is a real trooper. She survived the car crash the killed her father and left her uncle brain damaged.
• Nell O'Malley: Troo and Sally's older, boy-crazy sister. She has a different father than Troo and Sally.
• Helen: The mother of Nell, Sally, and Troo. She becomes ill.
• Officer Dave Rasmussen: He's a police officer who lives on the same street at the O'Malleys. He was a classmate of the girls' mother, Helen.
• Miss Ethel Jenkins: She has brown skin and takes care of Mrs. Galecki.
• Albert Molinari: He walks with a limp from polio. He's mean to the children on his street.
• Wendy Latour: She's mentally challenged and a friend of the O'Malley sisters.
• Mr. Gary Galecki: He lives in California and visits his mom in the summer.
• Mrs. Galecki: Gary's mother. She is taken care of by Ethel.
• Mary Lane: She is a friend of the O'Malley sisters.
• Eddie Mathews: Nell's boyfriend.
• Bobby Brophy: He organizes games on the playground. He is cute and all friendly and suntanned. All the kids love him.
• Susie Heinemann: She's missing.
• Granny: She is Paulie and Helen's mother and Nell, Sally, and Troo's grandmother.
• Mr. Hall Gustafson: Helen's third husband. He works at a shoe store. He's a drunk, and he's mean to the girls.
• Sampson: The gorilla at the zoo in the park.
• Henry Fitzpatrick: He likes Troo, they smooch.
• Marta Goldman: She lives in the same neighborhood as Sally, Troo, and Nell, Mrs. Galecki, and the Latours.
• Reese Latour: Wendy and Artie's older brother. He's mean to his brother Artie, and he calls Wendy names.
• Fritz Jerbak: A bar owner.
• Artie Latour: He's Wendy and Reese's brother.
• Sara Heinemann: She is missing.
• Paulie Riley: Nell, Sally, and Troo's brain-damaged uncle.
• Dottie Kenfield: She is missing. Sally thinks she is a ghost.
• Mrs. Callahan: She is a friend of Helen's and visits her in the hospital.
• Dr. Sullivan: Helen's doctor at the hospital.
• Ray Buck Johnson: Ethel's husband.
• Jim Madigan: He has a secret.
• Mrs. Kenfield: Dottie's mother.
• Nana Fazio: Fast Suzie's grandmother. She allows the O'Malley sisters to eat dinner at her house. She love's the girls and makes amazing desserts.
• Melinda: She works at a fast food restaurant and went to second base with Nell's boyfriend.
• Fast Suzie Fazio: She's older than the O'Malley's, and she educates Troo on some grown-up things like smoking and sex.
• Donny O'Malley: The O'Malley sisters' dad. Sally refers to him as the Sky King.
• Junie Piaskowski: She's found dead.
• Mary Lane: A friend of Troo and Sally's. She knows lots of gossip.
• Gertie Rasmussen: Add a description of this character.
• Susie Fazio
• Eddie Callahan
• Mother
• Lizzie
• Willie O'Hara
• Bobby rubbin
• Mrs. O'Hara
• David Rasmussen
• Mr. Lane
• Mrs. Officer Riordan
• Betsy
• Barb Kircher
• Johnny Fazio
• Aunt Margie
• Sister Imelda
• Mrs. Delancey
• Mr. Fazio
• Liebchin
• Daddy
• Mr. Goldman
• Sally Elizabeth O'Malley
• Sara Marie
• Frankie Heinemann
• Mr. Jerry Amberson
• Mr. Fitzpatrick
• Teddy Mahlberg
• Rosie Ruggins
• Tony
• Cathy Miller
• Doc Sullivan
• Mimi Latour
• Mr. Kenfield
• Mrs. Ruthie Latour
• Sky King
• Mrs. Esther Kambowski

Quotes edit see section history

• “"That wink had said it all. And Wendy's sly smile was like the amen on the end of a prayer."”

  Sally O'Malley

• “Clearly Nell was going crazy. (Well she certainly had the hair for it)”

  Sally

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• no matter what horrible things happen . . . you have to go on with your life with all the stick-to-itiveness that you can muster up.

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• love never really dies. It’s always out there, leaving a twinkling trail to another place where you can go and rest when you need to forget that things really do happen when you least expect them. And sometimes, those things can change your life forever.

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• Nothing else hurts worse in the world as much as tears for the missing.

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• All of our lives are tough. We lose people, we lose love, we lose jobs, we lose our health. Humor is the only thing I know besides spirituality that helps transcend pain.

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• Granny told me that Mother really wasn’t so tough, that she was just doing something called whistling in the dark.

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• So I felt . . . I didn’t know how to describe it exactly. Maybe . . . light? A lot lighter than I had for a long time. Like sunshine could get into me now.

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• How special people more than others attracted special things like fireflies and crickets and shooting stars and four-leaf clovers.

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• “No matter how poor we are,” Mother said, backing into the parking space in front of Shuster’s Shoes up on North Avenue, “we still need shoes.” She winked at us. “They’re important to our souls.”

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• There was just such an importance to her. Like she would never die or get sick or leave anybody ever. Ethel Jenkins was the cool side of my pillow when I had a fever.

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• It was a warm night and I liked to walk and look into people’s houses through their picture windows when their lights were on and there was a mother and the father and some kids and sometimes they looked just like a painting. I wasn’t a peeper like Mary Lane. I didn’t like to look that close. I just liked that feeling . . . that feeling of everything being the way it was supposed to be.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Mississippi
• California
• Vliet Street
• North Avenue
• Honey Creek
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin

First Sentence edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Good Graces.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Lesley Kagen (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3611.A344W48 2007
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

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Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary
• Books › Health, Mind & Body › Relationships
• Books › Parenting & Families

More Books Like This edit see section history