Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

Hungry for an exciting and extraordinary good book? Well, you have come to the perfect place. The novel Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher will certainly be an amazing book that you will never forget. This story is about a high school student named T.J. Jones, who excels in all sports. However, he didn’t want to try out for the football or basketball team at Cutter high school, even though lots of the teachers wanted him too. T.J. doesn’t like how obnoxious jogs are always thinking that they are superior to everyone else, and he didn’t want to be like any of them. Instead, T.J. tries to make a point that anybody should be allowed to be on a sports team at Cutter high school, and he forms a swim team under the guidance of a teacher named Mr. Simet. For this unique swim team, T.J. recruited a special group of kids that some might even call outcasts of the school. T.J. recruits a variety of different kids, and all of them have almost no experience in swimming. However, T.J. used to swim, so he had some experience, plus he was also very talented. T.J. recruited six other guys to form a seven-man swim team: the mentally challenged Chris Coughlin, the obnoxious and extremely intelligent Dan Hole, the kind and talented bodybuilder Tay-Roy Kibble, the rude Andy Mott, the quiet Jackie Craig, and the obese Simon DeLong. Although this team had their differences when they first came together, they eventually became great friends and improved every day. They also faced multiple challenges including not even having a pool at their high school to practice, and an annoying bully, Mike Barbour, trying to get the school to dismiss their swim team. The novel Whale Talk would be a superb book to read, due to its realistic and interesting story line, and the fact that it can inspire anyone that they shouldn’t be afraid to be themselves and always strive to do their best at whatever they are working for.~Adrian B. (per. 3)