Whale Talk
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 315 ratings
Price: 15.86
Last update: 10-20-2024
About this item
There’s bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don’t have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway. A group of misfits brought together by T. J. Jones (the J is redundant), the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to find their places in a school that has no place for them. T.J. is convinced that a varsity letter jacket - exclusive, revered, the symbol (as far as T.J. is concerned) of all that is screwed up at Cutter High - will also be an effective tool. He’s right. He’s also wrong. Still, it’s always the quest that counts. And the bus on which the Mermen travel to swim meets soon becomes the space where they gradually allow themselves to talk, to fit, to grow. Together they’ll fight for dignity in a world where tragedy and comedy dance side by side, where a moment’s inattention can bring lifelong heartache, and where true acceptance is the only prescription for what ails us.
Top reviews from the United States
Crutcher's protagonist, T.J. Jones, is a rare gem of a character. Having survived an early childhood of neglect and being the target of racism in his mostly white school, T.J. has plenty of reasons to be angry. However, he remains stoic in the face of adversity, refusing to rise to the racial taunts of his enemies. In fact, what makes him such a wonderful character is that his indignation and sense of justice are not reserved for himself but for others who fall outside the scope of the "in" crowd. His effort to put together a swim team is driven by an injustice he witnesses towards another classmate. In a school driven by athletics, he walks a precarious slope with the individuals on his team who fit plenty of categories--mentally challenged, handicapped, mute, overweight--except athletic. Still, T.J.'s drive and determination help whip this group of misfits into a competitive swim team in no time flat.
Of course, from the arc of the swim team come many other compelling story lines--abuse, death, racism, and forgiveness. Crutcher seamlessly weaves these threads into the story by putting T.J. front and center. By witnessing and even participating in other characters' difficulties--the racial abuse inflicted upon a five-year-old girl of mixed race, the tragedy of his father's past, the sexual abuse suffered by one of his teammates--T.J. is better able to put his own life into perspective with guidance from his loving adoptive parents and his therapist.
Although the last 20 pages or so stray into melodrama, this book is powerful on so many levels. Images--the deer, the Brillo pad--will stay with the reader long after the book has been closed. At the core of its message is the idea that no one really knows what difficulties others are facing, a poignant message given the times we live in.
ERIC, 16 YEARS OLD MISS WATER IS MY TEAHER
(Written by a student of mine to fulfill a class project. JW)