Whale Talk
Chris Crutcher
***** stars
T.J. Jones has loving parents, along with a smart, beautiful girlfriend. T.J. is good at sports. However, T.J. is one of the few non-white members of his prejudiced town. He is part African American, white, and Japanese. T.J. chooses to have no school spirit. Many people don’t respect him since he won’t go out for sports. When T.J. is a senior, he sees a mentally handicapped friend, Chris, being bullied for wearing his dead brother’s letter jacket. He stars the team so that Chris, and the other outcasts, could win letters.
This just might be the best book I ever read. The way Crutcher writes is so beautiful; you feel as if the main character is talking straight to you. Of course, many issues are dealt with, but the book comes together. These issues happen in real life, and the book portrays them in a realistic way. This book, along with my other favorite Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes, has not been checked out lately in the library. Please read these Chris Crutcher books! You’ll be glad you did, especially since we get to meet him soon!
2 comments:
Chris Crutcher tends to always have kids in his books with a lot of issues! It seems we've seen the gamut from abuse to sexual orientation to death and dying!
Thats true, he's a therapist. On his website he says that letting kids read about important issues makes them more comfortable talking about them. I agree that Deadline was too much, he has a lot of teens saying they love how he talks about issues, so I guess he tried to cram it all into one book. It was still a great book.
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