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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
One of the best Young Adult coming-of-age novels I have read in a long time. The beauty and honesty of the story, the inspiration and humor woven throughout, the heart-wrenching but ultimately inevitable conclusion... You can't ask for more. The main character, who struggles with bigotry because of his mixed-racial background, is hilarious and poignant, even in his flaws. Chris Crutcher is a master.
T.J., whose real name is The Tao, was born into a home with a mother who was addicted to crank and crack. T.J. is black, Japanese, and white. Despite growing up with anger issues, he has channeled his rage and grown into an attractive, athletic, smart, and witty (often sarcastic), young man. Despite his athletic ability, he's stayed away from organized sports at school because he despises the jocks, who think they run the school. When T.J. sees Mike, a football star, picking on Chris, a boy with disabilities, he takes action. T.J. forms a swim team of outcasts in opposition to the "cool" jocks at the school. Chris is T.J's first recruit for a swim team of misfits: "a representative from each extreme of the educational spectrum, a muscle man, a giant, a chameleon, and a psychopath." This would be a great novel for classroom use because it addresses self-identity and what it means to be a misfit.
This was an inspirational and devastating at the same time. It would have been a great read when I was a teen! I would have eaten this book up! Recommended!
Never had I wished so badly that a character in a book was a real person as I did with TJ Jones in Whale Talk. I have to mention that the audiobook vers. of this is fantastic, too. I remember driving around trying to keep back the tears near the end. I had read the book, but this was a different experience altogether. Crutch is the man! One of my all-time favorites.
This book might take the cake for the craziest final-15 pages in a contemporary novel. Holy nuts. Besides that, and amazing and compelling read, full of political incorrectness and how messed up life can be.
I enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would!
The subject hadn't really caught my attention when I read the synopsis, but I really liked the characters, and there was a lot more social depth than I had expected.
The subject hadn't really caught my attention when I read the synopsis, but I really liked the characters, and there was a lot more social depth than I had expected.
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
The main reason why this book didn't appeal to me is because it's about sports, particularly swimming and basketball, and I'm not a huge fan of either. I picked it up for my banned book challenge, and I think a lot of folk, especially young adults, would enjoy this book, but it's simply not for me. I also wasn't a fan of the writing style or how the plot would jump place to place without much of a warning. Plus, the author is a family therapist, and it feels like he took every traumatizing experience he ever encountered with families and children and put it ALL into this one book, which was I think too much to read. But I also understand life is wild, messy, and certainly unfair, and this book shows that perfectly. There are highs and lows to life for real.
If you love sports and find major discussions of trauma interesting, then this book is for you! But yeah for me it was alright.
If you love sports and find major discussions of trauma interesting, then this book is for you! But yeah for me it was alright.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder
sometimes there was a little too much going on which kept it from a 4 star for me but it did make me cry twice. it was a good read.
Whale Talk is a is narrated by The Tao "T.J." Jones, an adopted Asian/African American teenager. The story takes place in Cutter High School, which prides itself heavily on the physical achievements of its students, and thrives on the winnings of the football and basketball teams. T.J, tired of the bulling that goes on in his school, gets together six fellow outcasts to form a swim team.
This book was ok. I liked that it was not just about T,J's racial struggle as a minority, but also about outcasts and minorities in general. T.J. may be one of the only black people he knows, but he still is able to find a sense of community in his swim team. If I had one problem with the book, it would be that it felt a little stereotypical. It felt like all the drama and violence of the story was coming from black characters and the book seemed to reinforce tropes of African American's having to overcome the violence. I think this story could have represented T.J's experiences as a minority without including these stereotypes of blackness.
I think this would be a good book for kids to have access to, a good book to keep in a school library or on a shelf in a classroom. However, I don't think I would personally recomend it to any teenagers. (partially because I think it might make a minority student feel awkward to have a minority book recommended to them, and also because this book was not that fantastic). I will say however, that I like that it's kinda a book about sports, but also a book about other issues as well, which means it might appeal to lots of different types of kids.
This book was ok. I liked that it was not just about T,J's racial struggle as a minority, but also about outcasts and minorities in general. T.J. may be one of the only black people he knows, but he still is able to find a sense of community in his swim team. If I had one problem with the book, it would be that it felt a little stereotypical. It felt like all the drama and violence of the story was coming from black characters and the book seemed to reinforce tropes of African American's having to overcome the violence. I think this story could have represented T.J's experiences as a minority without including these stereotypes of blackness.
I think this would be a good book for kids to have access to, a good book to keep in a school library or on a shelf in a classroom. However, I don't think I would personally recomend it to any teenagers. (partially because I think it might make a minority student feel awkward to have a minority book recommended to them, and also because this book was not that fantastic). I will say however, that I like that it's kinda a book about sports, but also a book about other issues as well, which means it might appeal to lots of different types of kids.
Hmmm I debated between 2 or 3 stars. I enjoyed the swim team and underdog aspect, but by the end all the other drama was a little over the top for me. Who knew Idaho was such a dark place?