Book Review: Whale Talk

Whale Talk

by Chris Crutcher

Summary

The Tao was a mixed race boy born to a crack and crank addicted mother named Belinda. Belinda was of Swiss-Norwegian descent and had a one night stand with another man. Stephan, her boyfriend, of German-American descent, left Belinda as soon as he realized it was not his child. Belinda was distraught at the hospital where she met Abby Jones, a lawyer for an assistant attorney general's office dealing with mostly child-abuse cases. Abby had just suffered her fourth miscarriage and consoled Belinda. By the age of two, The Tao had been severely malnourished, left alone for hours on end, and virtually left to die while his mom went out to get high. After CPS came, Belinda  remembered her friend from the hospital and begged Abby Jones to take her son and raise him as her own. After speaking with her husband, John Paul, the answer was an immediate yes. The Tao, now going by TJ Jones, lives in Cutter, Washington with his new family

His adopted father who he considers his real father since he never had one, is a large man covered in tattoos who works on motorcycles and rescues any child in need. John Paul feels that he needs to make up for his past sins and does so by helping anyone he can. In July of 1968, while he was a truck driver, he stopped at a general store, met a young widow, began talking and hit it off, only to go back to her place to hook up. The widow had a two-year-old toddler that the Grandma was supposed to be watching. The toddler disappeared from the Grandma, and as John Paul was pulling out of the general store with his semi truck, he unknowingly, ran the toddler over and tore him to shreds. John Paul did not know this and was not contacted over it until he was miles away and there was no way to save the child. Though he may be strong, burley, and a scary man, this incident still brings him to tears in an instant. With Abby being a lawyer for children in need and John Paul being a guardian ad litem, the two are a dynamic duo for the children of Cutter, Washington.

Dad did tell TJ about this incident only once. TJ found his father crying, alone, in his room on the 30th anniversary of the death of the toddler. Dad was in a dark room with only the tv turned on to a whale video. He tells TJ about his theory of whales and how everyone could be more like them, and TJ engraves it into his mind.

A large boy standing at 6 feet 2 inches and weighing close to 200 pounds, every coach at Carter High School (CHS) wants him on their team. TJ is a snarky young man with an extremely high IQ and boasts on his solid articulation, all the while dismissing any attempt made by a coach for him to join a team. With all the rage built up from over the years, despite counseling with a woman named Georgia, TJ would rather use his fists before his words for a majority of the problems he runs into. When he does decide to use his words, e makes a fool out of anyone who encounters him. While TJ lives in a predominately white area, he rarely faces trouble with the race other than with a few exceptions.

Rich Marshall, a 36-year-old man, part of Wolverines Too, the CHS alumni association who mainly deal with athletics, is one of those few exceptions. Rich Marshall fell in love with a woman back in high school who chose to marry and conceive with a black man. Heidi, the child conceived with Willis Stack, has had to face a whole new world after Rich took over as her father. Willis Stack passed away and Alicia, Heidi's mother, agreed to get back with Rich. The two of them had twin boys together. Rich beats Alicia and anyone else that gets in his way, specifically Heidi. He absolutely hates this child, despite the fact he said he would help Alicia take care of her, and called her a "nigger baby" while constantly yelling at her and belittling her self-esteem. Most of the town does not know about Heidi, let alone the backstory that brought her into his life. Alicia begins to take Heidi to therapy lessons with Georgia, the same therapist that TJ grew up with and cured his said to be in curable rage. Heidi takes an immediate liking to TJ because of their similar skin tones, putting him in more harms way with Rich and his racist friends.

One summer TJ found out that Rich was hunting with a few of his buddies. Rich killed a mother deer and tied a young baby to a tree to come back later and kill. He encouraged TJ, or any of the other boys he was hanging with, to go and get a hunting license so that they could kill the deer and Rich would not get in trouble for overdoing quota. Only one child agrees and TJ hopped on his bike to go find the baby deer. When he got there, he untied the deer and tried to set it free, but the baby deer refused to leave its mother's side, even after TJ screamed and chased after it. TJ heard the truck coming back around with Rich and his friends and threw himself over the baby deer's body to protect it. After being severely beaten, kicked, and bruised TJ refused to come off the baby deer's body. With a lucky shot, Rich was able to shoot the baby deer in the head, killing it in TJ's arms. Since Rich was older and a part of the alumni association, he spent a great amount of time at CHS helping with the athletics teams. When TJ's parents found this out, they threatened to sue the school and Rich and make his life a living hell. Instead they came to another conclusion, only contacted by the school when TJ wore a bloody shirt from being beaten and splattered with the insides of a baby deer to school every day for a week. His parents were in full support.

As a senior, TJ doesn't have a huge friend group, but spends the majority of his time with his girlfriend, Carly Hunter, another athlete who he has had a crush on since day one. TJ is extremely close with one of his ELA and journalism teachers, Mr. Simet, and Simet encourages him to join the swim team or principal Morgan will replace the assistant wrestling coach with Simet and he will have to work with Coach Murphy. TJ agrees only if he can recruit a team, and he has ulterior motives. The entire book is set as a flashback of TJ's senior year and his journey on the swim team.

With the help of Simet, TJ begins to recruit for the new swim team with the final goal of everyone receiving a letterman jacket, the pride and joy of any CHS athlete. TJ does not want a jacket, rather he wants to mess with Mike Barbour, the school bully. Mike is notorious for messing with Chris Coughlin, a special needs student, simply created through child abuse, whose perfect, athletic older brother passed away some years before. Chris insists on wearing his brother's letterman jacket in his memory, but he is constantly bullied by Mike and his fellow football goons because of the strict regulations of the letterman policy at CHS. While Mike may be notorious for bullying Chris, TJ is notorious for always being behind him to stand up to Mike for Chris. Chris respects TJ and has some communication with him throughout the day.

TJ begins to recruit the roughest batch of swimmers he could possibly find and along the way he manages to recruit an assistant coach. Oliver Van Zandt, a town member of Cutter, runs into TJ at All Night Fitness (ANF) in the sauna. Oliver was working multiple part time jobs, including a night shift at ANF so that he could put his son through college. Because he was so low on cash, Oliver sold his house and belongings and now sleeps in different locations in ATF so he doesn't get caught. In an effort to not get caught, Oliver and TJ strike up a deal and Oliver, soon to be known as Icko, begins his job and does it well. Simet cannot begin coaching until after Thanksgiving break, so Icko takes over his responsibilities until he's able to do so.

In the beginning, TJ made flyers to ut on student's cars. A few people called and TJ recruited the rest. TJ's team consists of the following:

• Chris Coughlin- a special needs student who was spotted by TJ at a special needs swim training at ANF
• Simon DeLong- an overweight boy with low self esteem; when he was given a choice to kill one person in the world, he chose his mom
• Andy Mott- the most angry and openly violent child in the school; is in ISS and OSS more than actual classes; has a distinct gait; he only has one leg due to childhood abuse of his mother's late boyfriend who tied him up in the basement and left him, leg lost all blood and then he suffered from gangrene 
• Tay-Roy Kibble- a bodybuilder and the most in shape member of the team; the only other non-white team member
• Dan Hole- an extremely intelligent individual that Icko requires to do push-ups if he says academic words that Icko doesn't know; likes to work with the team statistics 
• Jackie Craig- the quietest individual who doesn't speak until the last qualifying meet; considered a ghost by TJ; openly upset when the season is over

While rough at first, the team slowly figures out what they need to do to be successful and begin communicating more and more.

Icko receives his license to drive a bus, and the team packs up to go to their first meet whose points did not go towards the final competition. CHS and the surrounding schools work on a pint basis and they rack them up through the different sports throughout the year. Impressed with their first real race, they ignore the fact that a storm is brewing and that the radio mentions the road they are on might be closed. Soon after Icko disregards the announcement, a snowplow comes face-to-face with the school bus, and the school bus then runs off the road, landing face first in a snowbank. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, the coaches put flares up on the road to signal for anyone to save them. Once everyone was comfortable and almost asleep, Mott approaches TJ who mentions that he needs to get his attitude in check. Not much is known about Mott, even though he has been in Cutter for two years, but TJ soon learns that he was sexually and physically abused by his mother's late boyfriend. All of Mott's rage and asshole comments are soon understood by at least one team member, turning closer to a friend every day.

After working pretty frequently with Georgia, TJ finds out that Alicia and Rich have lost custody of their children. Heidi, now homeless, is put into the custody of the Jones family because TJ has made such a positive connection with her. The family knows that this will cause controversy but they choose to except the consequences. After night one and a Happy Meal dinner, Heidi too falls in love with John Paul and the rest of the Jones family.

Surprisingly, Chris does very well in the water and has a knack for cheering on his teammates. The weeks go by and more and more meets are attended by the team. Simet finally mentions on one of the bus rides that a majority of the teammates are failing or close to failing their classes. Simet requires that every time they are on the bus and 45 minutes before the actual practice that the boys study together and keep each other on track so that they are qualified to swim at the meet. The extra effort and longer nights pay off because all of the boys get their grades up and are eligible to participate.

CHS's athletic association and council is upset with the fact that Simet's team all may letter because of swimming. After a vote, the athletic association agrees to allow them to letter under certain circumstances, rigged positively for the team and concocted by TJ. Rich, being on this association, is unhappy with the results and later asks for a second voting to occur. At the second voting, TJ was able to attend and some new stipulations were put into place, but no one voted before looking over the rules initially put into place by the athletic association. 

Adding to the stress, Rich continues to harass the Jones family because they are housing Heidi. After another incident, Alicia is allowed her twin boys back and is put in the Jones house for safety. There is a no contact policy put into place for Rich to Alicia and for Rich to the Jones family. A restraining order has also put in to place, making it hard for Rich to volunteer at the school and be around TJ, making his life easier. Rich continues to violate the policy, calling at random payphones drunk in the night, but Alicia stays strong and ignores him. Unfortunately, Alicia agrees to meet up with Rich under the impression that he truly is sorry and will change. She returns knowing that she did the wrong thing and John Paul begins to collect evidence of Rich calling and harassing his house and family.

It's time for the final competition, and the only one to qualify was TJ. Despite the rest of the team not qualifying, they all agreed to continue practicing together and attend the meet to cheer him on. While at the meet the athletic association pulled a shady move by revoting for the letterman without Simet's vote or consent. TJ knew exactly what scores he needed to get to letter and have athletics ahead of the points game when spring rolls around, but once again he had something else in mind. Simet gets on the phone with the athletic council and finds out that they revoted, leaving TJ to do the exact opposite of what he was originally going to do. The starter gun goes off on the last relay TJ had to swim, and the book jumps forward.

When the boys returned home from the meet, Simet requested an immediate meeting with the athletic council to revote the revote based on unfair advantages. Simet, obviously upset with the decision, threatens to bring lawyers into the picture if the rules are not changed. During the meeting, Mike Barbour makes a side comment about how he could outswim any of the swimmers on the team. TJ takes it upon himself to make a bet out of it, leaving Barbourr awestruck in disbelief. If Mike Barbour can out swim Chris Coughlin then no one will get a letterman jacket. But after weeks of swimming and training, TJ knew that Chris would be Mike without any problem whatsoever. The boys head to the makeshift pool that they've been using at ANF and begin to warm up. Within the fourth lap around, Mike is having to be pulled out of the pool from sheer exhaustion, leaving Chris the winner and the boys with the letterman jacket.

The boys receive their letterman jacket at the winter sports banquet. All except for TJ, who purposely threw his last relay race to make sure that CHS did not come out top in the overall spring points tally. Nonetheless, TJ was happy that this misfit team of his received a letterman despite all the odds. Chris catches TJ's attention and brings him down to the gym floor, hiding a paper bag behind his back. With Simet in tow, TJ and him meet up with Chris who pulls out a letterman jacket for TJ. TJ doesn't understand but is used to re-explaining things to Chris and tries to let him understand that he was not supposed to receive a letterman jacket. Chris tells him to take a second and look closer, and TJ realizes it's Chris' brother's jacket. After being picked on for years on end for wearing the jacket, Chris gifts it to TJ without an issue.

Rich continues to harass the Jones family, constantly changing what he does and when he does it. As spring rolls around, Hoopfest, an intramural basketball league, occurs and TJ loves to play. Though he refuses to play for the school basketball team, he absolutely wrecks it on the court for intramural ball. TJ tries to get the swim team to play on his basketball team, but the boys refuse based on lack of skill, leaving TJ to recruit his father, coach Simet, and Mott, now known as the one legged swimmer and basketball player. One of the teams that the Slam Dunking Merman are required to play against have Rich and Mike on them. After a brutal defeat to Rich's team, Rich runs out of the basketball gym while the Slam Dunking Merman celebrate with the crowd. Heidi insisted on attending this game even after finding out that Rich would be there. Alicia brings Heidi, and Georgia finds a way to join in on the fun, making it quite the family celebration.

The crowds begin to part and audible gasps are heard throughout the gym as Rich stampedes towards the Jones family members and his own step-daughter with a gun in tow. Aiming for what he knew would hurt everyone the most, he pointed the gun at Heidi. TJ screams for his father who immediately jumps in front of Heidi and shields her from the bullet. John Paul is hit and is slowly bleeding out on the basketball court trying, in his last moments, to teach TJ a lesson about life. John Paul made TJ promise to not seek revenge on Rich and compared it to the toddler boy that he killed so many years ago. He finally tells TJ the name of the woman he had a one night stand with as he slowly dies on the floor. Even with the help of policeman and ambulance crew, John Paul doesn't make it. Even though he wasn't able to save one little boy, he was able to save one little girl.

After graduating, TJ takes some time off and begins a motorcycle trip towards Northern Idaho to the city that Stacy Couples, the widower, lives in. After stopping to visit the grave stone of little Tyler and for a bite to eat, he asks the man who owns the restaurant if Stacy still lives in the area. TJ is saddened to find out that she moved away 11 years ago, but her son, Kyle, still lives in town just a few blocks away. TJ hops on his motorcycle and pays Tyler a visit, soon finding out that he was conceived the night of John Paul and Stacy's one night stand. Tyler is a spitting image of John Paul in both the looks, actions, and the way they think. TJ's father never knew he had another child, but John Paul would have gone to Tyler if he knew. The two agreed to keep in contact after swapping stories of how they are related and leave on good terms.

TJ did not follow the court case and was almost ghost-like at the funeral, but some good did come out of it all. Alicia, the twins, and Heidi now live at the Jones' house full-time. Abby granted Icko a plot of land on the property for him to build a house and live rent free. The swim team mates go about their own ways and find their place in the world, some continuing higher education and others finishing up high school on other teams. Rich ends up in prison without parole. And lastly, Mike Barber approaches TJ to apologize for the horrendous act that Rich committed. Mike and Rich were the best of friends, almost like brothers, and Mike even tried to take the gun from Rich the day that he brought it onto the court.

In the end, TJ and his mom turn on the whale video that soothed his father through his crying spells and spoke about how one cannot harbor hate and that revenge should never be taken because life is too short.

Book Trailer

A trailer I found and really liked is here.

Themes

Family, Abuse, Substance Abuse, Swimming, Team, Bullying, Athletics, Friendships, and Honesty.

Similar Themed Books

Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis and Crossover by Kwame Alexander.

Other Books by Chris Crutcher

Crutcher has written eleven more books since the summer of 2010. One book, A Brief Moment in the Life of Angus Bethune, was made into a movie.

Teaching Ideas

Discuss the relationship between TJ and Mr. Simet.

Pose the following questions:

• Why do you think they are so close?
• Why does TJ respect Mr. Simet more than the other teachers at the school?
• How would you describe TJ's relationship with Mr. Simet? 
• How would you describe Mr. Simet's relationship with TJ?
• How does Mr. Simet treat the other team members compared to TJ?

Ask students if they have an adult that they trust the way TJ trusts and admires Mr. Simet. Have students write a one page thank you note to the adult of their choice about why they are thankful to have them in their life.