After reading Chris Crutcher’s response letter I was so intrigued I had to go buy his book Whale Talk. The reader follows T.J. Jones a high school misfit and his group the “Cutter All Night Mermen” on a quest to attain the symbol of all that is wrong in his high school, a varsity letter jacket. Through this journey they are forced to interact with other members of the team and gradually learn things about themselves and their teammates that allow them to understand each other and grow in ways they did not think possible. I loved this book because of the realness. This is how teens interact whether they hide it from us or not it is there.
The interactions of the kids in this book include conversations full of sarcasm, sexual references, slang, and profanity. Though these things are often thought to be detrimental by adults I believe they make reading interesting for young people. If they can identify with the characters they are more likely to keep reading. I think this is the most important thing.

Book Review Template

Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk. 2001. HarperCollins Publishers: New York.

Genre: Censorship

Themes: athletes, swim team, abuse, adoption, bullies, family, friendship, high school, misfits, multicultural, outcasts, prejudice.

Age / Grade Appropriateness: High School Students

Awards: ALA Popular Paperbacks for YA, ABC Children's Booksellers Choices Award, Washington State Book Award, Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, Outstanding Sports Book Award/YA, ALA Best Book for YA, TLA Taysha’s List, New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, and ALA Top 10 Best Books for YA.

Censorship Issues: Racism, horrific language, Sexual, and Social Abuse.

Plot Summary (Summarize the plot in 250 words or less): T. J. Jones is a combination of black, Japanese, and White. T.J. has been adopted by a family because his mother was on crack. He is actually a natural at being an athlete but, chooses not to participate because he does not like being told what to do. Then one day his thoughts change. He decides to get a group of misfits to develop a swim team. One problem the team has is Cutter High their high school has no pool. T.J. wants all of his team mates to receive high school letters. This is a true inspirational story that shows no matter what your circumstances are you can overcome them.

Critique (Consider if the book fits the bill of a YA book as we have discussed /read. Include your opinion of the book here as well): Whale Talk is a great novel for young adults. It talks about really life situations we all have faced in high school. The language in the book is edgy. But, young adults are around that every day. I feel we must not shelter our young adults from the bad things of the world. If we shelter them we need to be ready when they are not able to handle the world. When we let our young adults see and know what life is all about when something bad happens they will be prepared.

Curriculum Uses (Possible uses in the classroom / school library / public library): As librarians/teachers Whale Talk is a book that teaches many lessons. You are able to teach overcoming situations that seem to be impossible. It shows to that no matter what clique you are in everyone can be friends. High schools across America have major problems with cliques and this book shows that they all can come together. I know that this book has been banned from many schools but, I feel it should be left on the shelf. Our young adults need books like this one. ( )

Ok, first things first. All the editions of this book I've seen feature a white guy, running. WHY?! The book is about a swim team, and narrated by a black/Japanese/white guy.

I did not love this one nearly as much as I was told I would. I mean, it was good, but I just didn't click with it. Mainly, I wasn't a huge fan of TJ, and the story is entirely in his voice. He's just... too good. His main problem is that he doesn't like jerks in authority positions (which makes him even better to a teen audience!) and his anger issues (but he only gets mad at the bad guys, and only lashes out at people we see are bad people and deserve it, so it's totally ok!) His self-righteousness annoyed me. ( )

A story about an adopted, multiracial high school boy named TJ whose mother was addicted to crack and crank. He was fortunate to be adopted by a loving couple. Although he is not a fan of athletic events he decides to get a group of unlikely outcasts to create a swim team. The more others are opposed to the group the stronger his ambition is to win.
An inspirational story for any student to see how even students that are handicapped, abused and adopted can have success and even triumph over amazing odds. ( )

A group of misfits come together to start a swim team in a overly jock oriented school.