Rating: 
Summary: An interesting book from start to finish
Review: Whale Talk is a great book about a kid named The Tao or T.J. who was full of rage when he was a kid. Then his parents got a child therapist named Georgia who, with the help of his parents, make him so that he is more laid back. The only time T.J. is mad with rage is when there is injustice. In order to help a brain damaged kid named Chris Coughlin (who get's picked on by Mike Barbour and the rest of the football team because Chris wears his dead brother's letter jacket) T.J. creates a swim team. The swim team that T.J. makes is a bunch of misfits such as a bodybuilder,a one legged kid,a brain damaged kid, a fat kid, a genius, a loner, and T.J. who is a black Japanese boy. Then T.J. makes up a scheme so that everyone on the team can get a letter jacket but during the process the athletic counsel finds out that everyone is going to get a letter jacket. While that is happening T.J.'s parents are taking care of all of Rich Marshall's family because of Rich abusing them. This is a book that is interesting from start to finish.
Rating: 
Summary: Top 5 YA Books of All TIme
Review: Whale Talk is a book that takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions. The books warms the heart, infuriates, teaches, and opens the eyes of any reader that picks this book up. The Tao Jones is a mixed race character who is adopted from a drug-addicted mother. Tao is taken in by a truck driving dad and lawyer mother who are just about the coolest parents on earth, but they aren't without their own baggage.
Whale Talk is a masterfully woven tale that traces Tao through his struggles in a racist society that is also a little elitist. Tao, like most of Crutcher's protagonists, is a great athlete with a strange sense of humor. Tao enjoys getting even with those who single out he, or any other character in the high school that is different, by using the predators' ignorance against them. All in all, this is an honest portrayal of a complex mix of race, family secrets and small town routines held up by the Good Ol' Boy system along with serious developmental pshychological issues. This book will make you laugh, it will make you cry, but most importantly, it will make you examine your inner-most being in ways that will surprise you. Chris Crutcher is the undisputed King of YA Literature, which he proves with his most powerful YA novel to date.
Rating:
Summary: Whale Talk really talked to me
Review: Being a school media specialist I have read a lot of books for young adults. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book as much as this one. There are so many dynamics woven into this one story. It will make you roll on the floor laughing, cry your eyes out, and also think about the world around you more carefully. An excellent read.
Rating:
Summary: Top 5 YA Books Of ALL Time
Review: Whale Talk is a book that takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of emotions. The books warms the heart, infuriates, teaches, and opens the eyes of any reader that picks this book up. The Tao Jones is a mixed race character who is adopted from a drug-addicted mother. Tao is taken in by a truck driving dad and lawyer mother who are just about the coolest parents on earth, but they aren't without their own baggage.
Whale Talk is a masterfully woven tale that traces Tao through his struggles in a racist society that is also a little elitist. Tao, like most of Crutcher's protagonists, is a great athlete with a strange sense of humor. Tao enjoys getting even with those who single out he, or any other character in the high school that is different, by using the predators' ignorance against them. All in all, this is an honest portrayal of a complex mix of race, family secrets and small town routines held up by the Good Ol' Boy system along with serious developmental pshychological issues. This book will make you laugh, it will make you cry, but most importantly, it will make you examine your inner-most being in ways that will surprise you. Chris Crutcher is the undisputed King of YA Literature, which he proves with his most powerful YA novel to date.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read from Cover to Cover
Review: Chris Crutcher did an excellent job of writing a book that will interest a wide variety of readers. This book has something for both genders and for both young adults and adults. Whale Talk is refreshingly funny but also takes a serious look at human nature. T.J. Jones finds himself to be the center of controversy in more ways than one. T.J. is seventeen years old and has been the dream from many coaches through his school years. Although he is a tremendous athlete, he rejects the idea of ever being a part of organized sports which infuriates these coaches. All this is until the day Coach Simet apporaches T.J. to be a part of a new swim team at Cutter High School. T.J. reluctantly agrees after realizing a swim team could help him make a statement to some people he doesn't like. Being a part of this swim team changes T.J. throughout the year. For those of you who can relate to the 80's this swim team reminds me of the Rat Pack in "The Breakfast Club." These are seven guys you would never match together for any athletic event but end up being more of a team than T.J. had planned for. Not only does this book take you on an athletic journey but it takes you on a journey in family life and relationships. Through his family, T.J. learns a true lesson in compassion and forgiveness. This is a hard book to put down. It will make you laugh as these seven misfits find their place on Cutter's swim team but will also teach you a lesson on having compassion for people around you who are different. Sometimes, like T.J., compassion is learned the hard way.
Rating:
Summary: Whale Talk
Review: This book is about a high school student named T.J who is very very good at every sports he plys but he choses not to play and organized highschool sports because he doesnt want to be know as a stuck up jock. But the problem is the really wants a letter jacket. he needs a way to get a letter jacket and not play on a team with a whole bunch of stuck up jocks. So he decides to form his own team which will be there schools first swim team problem is they dont have a pool. This book deals with rasim and has the theme of fitting in
Rating:
Summary: Whale Talk
Review: Tj is a multiracial teenager who is connvinced to start a swimming team for Cutter High.The team is made up of people who don not fit in with the rest of society. That swim team is often bullied and face different types of pejudice.
Tj is dertimined to have the swim team letter. Barbour doesn't want them too. Throughout thier attempts for letters they face constant prejudice, and violence. The swim team bonds and they become friends.The theme of Whale Talk deals with predjudice and bullying.
Rating: 
Summary: Whale Talk is JUST ok!
Review: This book is about a boy and his misfit swim team. The try to get letterman jackits. And the misfits has a axadent in the middle of a drip home. You can find out what happens. I dident really enjoy this book. But, maybe you will.
Rating:
Summary: Whale Talk
Review: Chris Crutcher builds a story about challenging the status quo and finding the common humanity that unites those who believe they are alone in the world. The Tao, or T.J., grows up in Washington where racism dominates the town. T.J. attends Cutter High School where they are known for their respectable athletic program. One of the prize symbols to wear is an athletic jacket earned in a sport. Mike Baubour, a known enemy of T.J., tries to prevent Chris, less fortunate than many, from wearing his dead brother's letter jacket. T.J. fights to organize a male swim team. After he finds his teammates, including Chris, he sets up the criteria for earning a letter. This stirs up controversy among the Athletic Council, and finally come to a conclusion: each swimmer must better there time every meet to earn a letter. T.J.'s determination throughout the novel sets him above the pride of Cutter's athletic program and sets him in each teammates pride. T.J. is determined to achieve success for each one of his teammates, which would equal success to him. This book shows great teamwork, pride, and success when not everything comes easy.
Rating:
Summary: "Whale Talk" by Chris Crutcher
Review: T.J. Jones' English teacher, Mr. Simet, challenges him to put together Cutter High's first-ever swimming team. The anti-establishment T.J. answers that challenge by forging a team in his image: a collection of loners and misfits. This attempt to sully the precious letter jacket has the football establishment that rules Cutter up in arms. T.J.'s role as the leader of this team makes him a target for a lot of pent up hostility not only within the school but also in the surrounding community.
Chris Crutcher weaves together a brilliant story about challenging the status quo and finding the common humanity that unites those who believe themselves alone in the world. The team T.J. puts together is symbolized perfectly by Icko, the accidental coach who lives at the gym and works shifts at two different fast food restaurants. Each of the other boys reveals himself and some way, and Crutcher demonstrates beautifully the depth of feeling within those who are most commonly overlooked.
The themes of racism and domestic violence may be disturbing to many readers, and rightly so. But they serve a purpose in the book; they remind us that those who are idolized and seen heroes do not always deserve such adulation. And those who truly strive to do good deeds are sometimes pushed by guilt over past failings. By presenting a book with such dynamic characters and heart wrenching storylines, Chris Crutcher gives us a book that forces us to think about what it means to be human.
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