Whale Talk, By Chris Crutcher

Title: Whale Talk

Author: Chris Crutcher

Publish Date: April 2001

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Pages: 224pp

ISBN: 0688180191

Classification: Fiction

Genre: Realistic Fiction/Sports

Age Range: 12 and up

Price: $15.95

Annotation: The Tao, (yes that's his name-so he just goes by TJ), is an adopted, part black, asian, and white. After never taking part in sports (even though he is awesome at everything) he joins the swim team-on one condition-he gets to pick the school outcasts. Together they bond and horrify the football team while pursuing letter jackets.

Summary: T.J. is given up by his birth mother to a loving family who raises TJ like their own. He's grounded and matter of fact, and is incredible in sports. But in his High school where sports reign over everything else, T.J wants nothing to do with it. That is until a teacher approaches him to start a swim team. T.J. then comes up with a brilliant way to fight the injustices he see around him! He commits under the condition that he can recruit the players and they can all get letter jackets -the holy shrine of all things sports. Well, he does recruit and he recruits hard. He gets the less popular, outcast students and figures out a sly way of beating the odds to quality them all for the jackets. What he didn't expect was the bonds he would form while on the team. And what's more he may find some humanity in the craziness around him.

Evaluation: This book was so entertaining. It brought up all sorts of small town horrors but somehow you just love TJ and laugh out loud and grit through the tough parts. This is a Crutcher masterpiece in my eyes. And my boyfriend read it and loved it even more. So boys will totally enjoy this.

Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: Mixed races, bullying, sports team bullying, outcast, bonding, surviving abuse, helping others, small town issues, everybody is human

Reason this book was chosen: This book was on a required reading list but I must say I probably would have end up reading it anyhow because Crutcher is a talented writer and one that I would recommend to pretty much all young adults. Even if you don’t like sports (which Crutcher seems to be a big fan of) you can still find the joy and meaning in his books.