Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Whale Talk


The main character in this book is T.J. Jones. He is black, white and Japanese. His given name is The Tao and he was abandoned by his mother when she got heavily into crack and crank. He is adopted by a loving ex-hippie couple and with the help of a great therapist he is able to overcome his rage over being abandoned by his mother.
He is a senior in highschool and still can get upset by injustice so when a big deal high school football star picks on a brain damaged student, Chris, for wearing his dead brother's letter jacket T.J. hatches a scheme for revenge. He assembles a swim team in a school with no pool made up of the most outrageous outsiders and misfits that he can find in his school. He makes the coach promise them letter jackets if they can all qualify. They all ban together and actually get good enough not to embarrass themselves at meets. The best part of all is the time they all spend together on the bus to get to the meets and to actually share the hurts that have made them who they are. Meanwhile T.J.'s father is fighting some demons of his own from his past and decides to take in another foster child and finds himself at odds with the child's abusive step-father.
This book drew a heated discussion in Iowa lately due to the subject..language.. just what I am not sure , but heard recently that the Pastor who had started the ruckus was backing down. This was a very good book about bullying and what all goes on in schools nowadays. The language is a little rough but sadly this is the way most kids talk now a days. T.J. is a boy fast becoming a man who does all that he can to keep the peace and be himself. Lessons could be learned from reading this book and I hope tons of YA's give it a try.

1 comment:

Lover of Books said...

I'll have to see if I can get it at my library. It sounds like a great book! :)