Whistle Me Home begins—and ends—with chapters set on an early August afternoon, as Noli Brown sees her former boyfriend, TJ Baker, walking down the street in Sag Harbor, New York. The time is specifically noted; it has been five months and two days since their relationship ended. The fact that Noli is aware of the exact time that has passed, right down to the day, shows the importance of the event and lets the reader know how it continues to haunt Noli. The book then flashes back to the previous September, when Noli first met TJ at Peterson High School. Considering that the story is mostly set during the school year, Peterson High seems to play a fairly small role in the lives of these characters.

This is generally true of most of Wersba's books; the school milieu does not seem to hold much...