Whale Talk

Crutcher, Chris. 2001. WHALE TALK. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN 9780688180195.

The Tao Jones, or T.J., is one of the few multi-racial residents in Spokane, Washington. He enjoys many different sports but chooses not to participate in organized sports, until one of his teachers asks him for a favor. Mr. Simet wants to start a swim team so he doesn't have to coach wrestling. T.J. puts together an unorthodox group that begins to practice and compete as a team. As they become more comfortable with each other they begin to open up more and teach each other that they all have things in their life to overcome.

The setting of this book is very important. The story takes place in Spokane, Washington where there are not many multi-racial people. There is a lot of racism directed towards T.J. mainly from other students and a few adults. There is no specific mention of the year the story is set in but since people are using cell phones you can deduce that it’s fairly recent.

The main conflict in this book is between T.J. and the jocks at this school. He has been at odds with them for years because he feels like they run the school. He has amazing athletic ability but refuses to participate in organized sports because he doesn’t like people, especially coaches, telling him what to do. He also feels like the jocks take every opportunity to put down those who are not athletic. When T.J. sees one of the football players picking on a mentally handicapped boy for wearing his dead brothers letter jacket he makes up his mind to fight back. He decides to invite people to be on the swim team that otherwise wouldn’t be considered for a letter jacket. He thinks this will allow them to get a letter jacket and show the jocks they don’t run the school.
The characterization in this story lets the reader really get to know the many different characters. “The veteran author once again uses well-constructed characters and quick pacing to examine how the sometimes cruel and abusive circumstances of life affect every link in the human chain…” (Halls 2001).

One of the themes of this book is overcoming adversity. T.J. faces a lot of prejudice from others because he is multi-racial. He has learned how to let most of the comments slide past him, but from the first person point of view we see all the work T.J. has put in to get to that point. It has taken the love of his once hippie adoptive parents and a multi-racial counselor to help T.J. get to the place he is at now. The Cutter swim team also has to overcome adversity in many different areas. It is a struggle just for them to practice because they don’t have a pool at their school. The swim team is not comprised of your typical members. There is “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” (page 85).

The theme of forgiveness is also found throughout the book. T.J.’s father has struggled his whole life to forgive himself for a freak trucking accident that killed an eighteen month old boy. “I thought I’d have to kill myself,” he told me later, “just to end the pain” (page 59). At the end of the book when T.J’s father dies he demands T.J. to forgive his killer and spend “not one minute for revenge. I’ve spent my life…looking back…wanting to change things…” (page 212).

Reference List:
Halls, Kelly. “Review of Whale Talk.” Booklist 97, no. 15 (2001): 1462. http://ezproxy.twu .edu:2178/ps/retrieve.do?retrieveFormat=PDF_FROM_CALLISTO&inPS=true&prodId=LitRC&userGroupName=txshracd2583&workId=PI-1598-2001-APR01-IDSI-35.JPG&docId=GALE% 7CA74091353&callistoContentSet=PER&isAcrobatAvailable=true (accessed October 24, 2011).