Rating: 
Summary: Whale Talk is a Fabulous Young Adult Novel
Review: Whale Talk is a fantastic book. It is about a teenager's life that has to deal with many issues. T.J. is a Japanese-African-American teenager that has to deal with a lot of racism. T.J. is a great athlete that isn't involved in any high school sports because the coaches would enjoy public humiliation of the player or T.J. This all changes when T.J. gets the help and permission from his English teacher, Mr. Simet, about setting up a swim team because his high school has no swim team. T.J. then finds some losers from his high school who don't know a thing about swimming. However, a team and a bond suddenly form among the swim team members.
Whale Talk is a great young adult book that involves a great leader with a passion for swimming. This book clearly looks into the minds of current high school teenagers. Although this book is primarily for young adults, the story line will most likely entertain older readers.
An astounding book to read. If you like sports, drama, and comedy, then this book is great for you. There are many characters that Crutcher has added to this novel, each with a sense of pride and humor. If you like Crutcher as an author, then by far you will like this novel.
Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: I read a lot and I have to say that this is probably one of the best books that I have ever had the pleasure of reading.It is the story of the all around gifted TJ who gets together a team of misfits to swim.It starts out as a plan of revenge to his arch enemy Mike Barbour, but soon turns into something more.The team comes to love the bus rides to meets where everyone spills their deepest darkest secrets and a great friendship between the group is formed, almost a brotherhood.This book deals with a lot of issues, most of them serious, but Crutcher fills the book with humor.This is an all around great book.I must warn though, the language content is high, and some of the issues talked about might be over the heads of a 10 year old, so unless you are at least 12, wait to read this book.
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Summary: This book is Fantasmic
Review: I loved this fantasmic Book, "Whale Talk." Not only was it just a book, but you really feel like you're in it. It does have a little bad language, but i think that is more realistic in the the type of book. It takes place at a school, my favorite place. It has alot to do with alot of teen problems. I think it was a super book and this is my first time reading a Chris Crutcher book! I would really love to meet him, I think he is SUPER!!!! It would be awesome if he came to our fantasmic school.
THANK YOU,
RICHARD B. HOWARD
Rating: 
Summary: Whale of a Book!
Review: Chris Crutcher produces a fine piece of work in Whale Talk in which one finds oneself drawn into the world of T.J. (The Tao Jones) and Cutter high school in the Pacific Northwest. T.J. and a rag tag crew join together to form a swim team. Together they face the other jocks at Cutter as well as their own issues, including dealing with racism, disability, the value of being a team, and being true to oneself. Characters are portrayed well, and the plot, though somewhat unlikely, is extremely pleasing. Whale Talk is a celebration of life while firmly acknowledging the evil that is ever present in our society.Crazy James
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Summary: talky talky talky
Review: I could talk the good talk about how this book is about injustice, or prejudice, or something like that. I could. And that would be fine because the book is about those things. In fact, it speaks about those things really well. But what else it does really well, if less prominently, is talk about disabilities. One of the swimmers on the team has one leg. This is incredibly important because there are not a lot of books out there that depict limb deficient people realistically (or at all). If you're looking for a book that deals with disability, but isn't outrageously didactic, this is a good book. I have spent a lot of time looking at the portrayal of people with disabilities in young adult fiction, and I would definately put this book on my list of "recommended disability fiction." The end of the book, which I certainly would not dream of giving away, is so freakin' cool I laughed out loud, not from amusement so much as a strange feeling of triumph. I don't think I can explain how much this book meant to me.
Rating:
Summary: unbelieveable
Review: this book has a nice message about forgiveness, a message so nice, in fact, that it persuaded me to forgive the author for getting so goofy with the story. it was just a leeeetle bit contrived! and i couldn't get over the main character's name, "the tao jones." in fact, i am re-inspired to have a kid of my own so i can name him just that. maybe i should get a monkey instead though.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly poignant and uplifting!
Review: The lead protagonist in this beautifully crafted novel is saddled with the unfortunate name of The Tao Jones...and as if that isn't bad enough, he is a racial mix. That in itself is not the problem, unless one lives in the backward-thinking town of Cutter, Washington. Being equal parts Black, Japanese and White puts T.J. (as he's known to everyone) in the crosshairs of every racially bigoted neanderthal in town, and in his high school. It's no wonder then that he eschews organized anything, since he's been rejected pretty much all of his life. It's a classic case of reject first before he's rejected. Naturally athletically gifted, he is courted by every coach in school, to no avail...until...he's approached about starting a swim team in a school without a pool. Seeing an opportunity to flaunt a town's bigotry back in its face, T.J. accepts, and proceeds to put together the most motley crew of rejects he can find. Never once losing his sense of vengeance, the swim team goes on to take its members and the school to new heights. While presenting tolerance and intolerance in an objective light, Chris Cutcher manages to create a poignant atmosphere that is at once uplifting and bittersweet. His main characters unwavering goals and ultimate perseverance is beautifully rendered, while managing to not alienate anyone who might read this book. Highly recommended for adults as well as young adults, "Whale Talk" goes on my list of best reads of 2001.
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Summary: Another excellent Crutcher novel
Review: I've been a big fan of Chris Crutcher's work since Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, and the new Whale Talk draws on the same stuff that made that book an awesome read: swimming, intolerance, bad home lives, and what it is to be an outcast. Whale Talk is about The Tao Jones (T.J. for short), a mixed-race guy in a very white town, who despite being very athletic refuses to participate in organized sports. That is, until his favorite teacher, Mr. Simet, grabs him for his new swim team. Though there are some difficulties (the school has no pool and no one can actually swim except for T.J.), together they round up an unlikely group of swimmers: a brain-damaged boy, a bodybuilder, a walking-thesaurus intellectual, an overweight guy, a shadow, and a one-legged psycho. T.J.'s mission? To get this band of misfits some highly-valued letter jackets. Throw in the racial undertones and some really funny dialogue and Crutcher's got another really great book on his hands. Though a teensy bit derivative, definitely worth reading. (Watch out for the character of Andy Mott. Crutcher always seems to pick a character we are meant to love with abandon. In Sarah Byrnes, it was Ellerby. In Whale Talk, it's definitely Mott.) It also reads really fast...I couldn't put it down till I had finished it, though it meant staying up half the night. Two thumbs up.
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Summary: One of Cruchter's best
Review: Chris Crutcher's latest novel this book has all the usual elements found in Crutcher's writing. Sport themes, peer pressure and competition. The novel is told from the view point of The Tao Jones, or TJ Jones, who is black, japanese and white and was adopted by ex-hippies, after his crack addicted mother dumped him. TJ becomes involved is establishing a swim team at his high school and at the same time finds himself trying to protect another student, who is mentally disabled, from the jocks who pick him. All in addition to trying to maintain his sanity at a high school where the jocks are praised and all of life surrounds sports. This novel becomes a fascinating tale of personal relationships and child abuse, all while seesawing up and down on an emotional roller coaster.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful book
Review: Chris Crutcher is the only author in the world that can make you cry reading chapter ONE -- then laugh reading chapter two. I did and continued that way through the rest of the book. Whale Talk is about T.J. Jones, who rejects the idea of being a cool letterman jock until a teacher asks him to help form a swim team. T.J. is sick of seeing how jocks treat some of the less fortunate kids, so he comes up with a plan: Start a team with all the nerds, [...], and misfits, even if there's no regulation-sized pool and none of them can swim. The team and, especially, the bus to meets becomes a place where these school outcasts can find true acceptance and friendship they've never had before. Like Crutcher's Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, this is a great book about dealing with differences. Everyone should read it.
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