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Summary: Rachel
Review: Chris Crutcher has written a classic. You will become attached to TJ's team of misfits. You will cheer their triumphs and weep at their defeats. There is even some laugh out loud moments in this book between the brainiac and their homeless bus driver. I highly recommend this book!!
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Summary: The Tao Jones is UP!!!
Review: The Tao Jones is a great athelete. TJ does not, however, choose to participate in any of Cutter High School's revered sports programs. That is until similar minded English/Journalism teacher, Mr. Simet, convinces TJ to start a school swimming team.Of course, Whale Talk is much more than a book about a school swim team. The Tao, self described UNICEF poster boy, must contend with racism alive and strong in the Spokane/northern Idaho hub of white supremacy. TJ witnesses the dreadful guilt his father lives with for a past tragedy. He marvels at the selfless father (who becomes Icko, their honorary coach) who sleeps in the local gym and works two jobs in order to provide his son a good education. TJ plays cheerleader to a seemingly hapless group of swimmers. His life shows us a teen with tenacity, rebellion and compassion. No matter what happens to the Stock Market, The Tao Jones is UP!!
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Summary: Not just another HS sports book
Review: Think you've had it with high school sports stories? Think again. This one is filled with the best cast of characters since Saturday Night Live (the Chase, Belushi, Murphy crew). The lead character, TJ, is a rebel - with a cause, with a very dry sense of humor, a smart mouth, an independent streak that sets him against most teachers and coaches, a gigantic sense of justice, and a heart as big as they come. He's a guy you can't help but like. That is you, the reader. He's not particularly popular with the jocks, the popular crowd, the high school coaches. And once TJ sets about putting his "cause" in action, he's downright despised. TJ's cause is to have every guy on his swim team earn a letter jacket. This team, in TJ's own words, is made up of "one swimmer of color, a representative from each extreme of the educational spectrum, a muscle man, a giant, a chameleon, and a one-legged psychopath."
This book has heart, and guts... and style. This is a coming of age story, a sports story, an anti-"sports as usual" story, a rebel against the establishment story, and it hits just about every issue a child protection specialist author might want to tell you in the tough and empathetic language of an unlikely hero.
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Summary: Whale Talk review
Review: Chris Crutcher as a former high school counselor has once again shown that he is in touch with the figure of the teenager. The hero of his story, The Tao Jones, is a multiracial 17-yr. old caught in right-wing extremist militia country north of Spokane, Washington.
A kid with fabulous physical gifts who was nonetheless apathetic about athletics at Cutter High and indeed constantly bickered with the football jocks, T.J. took a challenge to form a swim team for the school, which he deliberately populated with the school misfits. Initially a poor group of athletes other than for the T.J., the players all learn skill, stamina; and most importantly a spirit of togetherness, intimacy, and cooperation.
Many of the other characters of the book are grossly dysfunctional hicks; and T.J.'s parents are constantly having to deal with the cases of pathological families in the neighborhood. One of these entanglements provide a tragic ending to the story.
Thus Whale Talk is an excellent book on teenage factional conflicts, team spirit and the potential of all kids, humor, and the tragedies of a dysfunctional world.
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Summary: Terrific!
Review: High school senior T.J. Jones is adopted and multiracial, but those facts don't bother him. It's ignorant and mean-spirited people - and there are plenty of them in his Pacific Northwest town - that get T.J.'s blood boiling. Unlike many teenage protagonists, T.J. is not searching for his identity. He's confident, smart, and principled, with athletic ability to boot. Despite his athleticism, T.J. eschews organized sports at Cutter High School, a decision that does not sit well with overbearing coaches and egotistical athletes in the sporting establishment. At Cutter, nothing is more sacred than a winning sports team, no one more revered than a jock in a letter jacket. Ever the nonconformist, T.J. and a like-minded teacher assemble a group of school misfits and social outcasts to form Cutter's first swim team. His biggest goal is to make sure every member of the ragtag team earns a letter jacket, an honor normally reserved for the school's elite. Never mind that hardly anyone on the team can swim, and the school has no pool. Crutcher's experience working in child protection and family therapy is evident here, and he is masterful at using dialog to weave the tale. The characters' irreverent repartee is often hilarious, except for what it reveals about the darker issues infusing their lives. As the unlikely teammates begin to find bonding and belonging, T.J. fights injustices against the swimmers and others in his life. Along the way, he receives sage advice from his father, whose wisdom, we learn, came with a heavy price. Anyone who has ever attended high school will relate to Whale Talk's underlying themes - alienation, bigotry, friendship, self-dignity, tolerance, and perseverance, to name a few - and will identify with at least a few of the personalities brought to life in this engaging and well-crafted book.
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Summary: Disturbing the universe
Review: Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher is a novel that centers on the life of a multi-racial youth named The Tao, who is called T.J. to make his life easier through school. He struggles with life of being a child who is African- American, Japanese, and Caucasian. His heritage often causes his grief in his community where being of mixed heritage is not the norm. He also deals with the pressure of being a non-conformist in a school where being an athlete is all supreme to most of the student body and the community. His struggle to fight against the odds reminds me of the character, Jerry, in The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier. He deals with the bullies of the school and takes the chance to stand for what he believes in. He too decides that it is time to "disturb the universe. I truly enjoyed this novel that addresses many of the struggles that are faced by the outcasts of the school campuses. This story is a modern version of The Chocolate War.
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Summary: WHALE TALK
Review: This book is awesome.
We fall into T.J's life during his senior year,where he's just about had enough of all the racist chants and jocks in his high school (he's a black-white-japanese mix) He decides that the school needs to see some different people, besides jocks, in letter jackets, and sets off to recruit the most bizarre people for the high schools first ever swim team.Problems: They don't have a pool, and only one person can really swim.
Not only does this book hit home for hundreds of teenagers, but it is written in a wonderfully sarcastic and funny style. We have the retarded kid, the overweight kid, a body builder, a braniac on the loose (drop and give me ten),a kid so quiet they forget he' there, and a one-legged phsyco, all the people you wouldnt pick for a swim team. Along with a few other characters, this book is deeply moving, and just fun to read.
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Summary: A Moving and Exciting Example of Character-Based Writing.
Review: The book never really goes anywhere. That's not Crutcher's strength. Instead, the book devours us into its compelling and witty characterizations. We feel the immediate danger and vulnerability of everyone. As it revolves around the theme of bullying and the imbalance of power, we see the characters (including the bullies themselves) as the reluctant pawns of abuse arising from this misuse. Humbling and tragic, this book will satisfy your every desire to become close to the ones you can only read about.
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Summary: Gripping, touching, inspiring
Review: T.J has never had it easy - his bio-mother left him when he was two after giving him an unforgettable name, and he is one of the few people of "colour" in his town. Forced to join a sporting team, T.J makes a swim team out of the school misfits - determined to win each of them a letterman's jacket. In the background is his on-going battle with Mike Barbour the jock and Rich Marshall the racist red-neck. A gripping novel of friendship, racism, and the young man strong enough to stand up for what he believes in. There are only a few books written that have touched me as deeply as this book. I read it because a friend of mine described what happened in the book and I had to read it. Even though her description was quite thorough I was still blown away by the power of this book. T.J is someone that will stay in my mind for a long time - as will his adoptive father. The events in this book unroll without hesitation and you are swept along by the force of the story and the currents of hate and racism that flow around T.J and the rst of the misfit swim team. I have just finished "Staying fat for Sarah Byrmes" as well and both of them tackle tough subjects with an ease that is unbelievable. Mr. Crutcher has an amazing ability to wrap you up in a persons life so that you can feel the "downs" in thier lives, but also the "ups". The most powerful image for me from this book is little Heidi trying to wash the brown out of her skin because "daddy Rich" told her too.
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Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I haven't read any other Crutcher books, but after reading this one, I'm going to try and find others. A great read about what it's like being different--multiracial in a white-bread town, handicapped, overweight, etc, etc. This one focuses on a multiracial kid (black, white, AND Asian) who forms a swimming team made up of outcasts to get the coveted prize of the school (a letterman's jacket), and maybe some self-worth on the side. ...I ended up devouring the book, ... it was so good! :)
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