num_pages: 224
description: There's bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don't have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway.A group of misfits brought together by T. J. Jones (the J is redundant) to find their places in a school that has no place for them, the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to carve out their own turf. T. J. is convinced that a varsity letter jacket--unattainable for most, exclusive, revered, the symbol (as far as T. J. is concerned) of all that is screwed up at Cutter High--will be an effective carving tool. He's right. He's also wrong.Still, it's always the quest that counts. And the bus on which the Mermen travel to swim meets--piloted by Icko, the permanent resident of All, Night Fitness--soon becomes the cocoon inside which they gradually allow themselves to talk, to fit, to bloom.Chris Crutcher is in top form with a cast of characters--adults, children, and teenagers--fighting for dignity in a world where tragedy and comedy dance side by side, where a moment's inattention can bring lifelong heartache, and where true acceptance is the only prescription for what ails us.
language: English
title: Whale Talk
titlecomplete: Whale Talk
characters: TJ Jones
genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Coming Of Age, Teen, Realistic Fiction, Sports, Young Adult, Banned Books, High School, School
ratings_count: 11130
places: Washington (state)
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Rhode Island Teen Book Award, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: California Young Readers Medal
category: Young Adult, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Washington State Book Award, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Gateway Readers Award
publisher: Greenwillow Books