Whistle by E. Lockhart and Manuel Preitano

 

        Whistle is a coming of age story about young Jewish teen activist Willow Zimmerman, who protests on her school steps. Every morning she tries to talk to her classmates on behalf of the messed up education system she has to live with. Willow is determined to help the city she loves and lives in. However, after school each day she goes to work at a dog shelter, working long hours at night to try and keep herself afloat while her ailing mother waits at home. Willow as a protagonist is cool because of her very explicit thoughts on crucial and moral issues, and especially because I was unaware that superpowers would be involved at all, when I was first introduced to her character she seemed quite realistic. She goes to school everyday, goes out to get food and hang out with friends in her free time, and works at a shelter, where she kindly sneaks food to a large stray named Lebowitz. 

Once we are introduced to Willow, a new character appears: her mom’s estranged college friend, who offers her a job and a chance to pay off the medical bills. Willow begins to be faced with choices that lead her away from the activism she was so passionate about, and she must rediscover for herself what sort of change she wants to make in her neighborhood and world. 

I found this graphic novel especially interesting because of its setting in Gotham city. When I first started the book, and because of the non-action-shot cover art (and because I missed the “a new gotham city hero” and DC in the corner of the cover) I didn’t realize that the book would be about superheroes. I wasn’t really sure what to expect and all I knew was that the art style was nice. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the superhero-ness, in addition to the real and important topics that the story brings up, like financial inequality and flaws in an education system. Also, once I started to catch on to the fact that the story was going to be about a superhero in the DC universe, I was happy to recognize  some of the other characters that appeared. 

All in all, I enjoyed this book, and would recommend it to someone looking for a quick and fun comic to sit down with.

-Marina