Background

The novel "Whale Talk", Written By Chris Crutcher, is the story of a highschool boy (T.J. Jones) starting his own swimming team of social outcasts with the far-away goal of outfitting them all in letter jackets to set his sights on. Set in present-day Cutter, (West Coast)(United States) where athletes and their accomplishments rule the school. When T.J. Jones sees a special-ed student being beat up by one of these athlete/bullies, he steps in. After a little inquiring as to the situation, he figures out that Chris (student) is being beaten up for not earning his own letter jacket. (It is the property of his deceased brother). The bully says "It's an honor to wear these colors. You don't put on the jacket your brother earned." (Crutcher ) T.J. then decides to make a stand for all the kids out there who don't fit in. He posts fliers all over school and eventually manages to assemble a small team of misfits. They begin to practice together at their local community center, All Night Fitness, (though the pool is nowhere near the size required at official swimming meets.) After recruiting the local homeless man as their interim coach, they begin to improve little by little and eventually begin competing at local competitions. Every single member of the team except T.J. performs horribly, but their morale remains the same, because they have built a strong team together. When T.J. makes it to the state meet, his teammates remain behind him and make the trip out east with him. When they return and the Athletic Comission refuses to grant the swim team letters though they met all their agreed-upon conditions, T.J. stands behind his team and supports them by arguing against the comittee. In the end, they receive their letters and proudly wear their letter jackets around Cutter High School.

Setting: Cutter High School, Spokane, Northern West Coast, United States.

Andy Mott: Andy Mott is an overweight student at Cutter High that doesn't fit in. That's because he's so huge and people automatically consider him a bully just by looking at him. In the beginning of the book, when he arrives at practices he doesn't say a word. As the months pass by, he shows the team his amputated leg that he had to recieve after an infection of gangrene that he received because of child abuse. He begins to open up to the swim team about his abusive past and slowly he trusts them with his secrets.

Dan Hole: Dan Hole is an intelligent student who is forced to hide his academic talents by his substitute coach, affectionately known as Icko. Whenever he uses a vocab word that the coach doesn't understand, he must do some sort of physical punishment. Throughout the book, he does not change that much, but provides a bit of comic relief.

Icko: Substitute coach for the Cutter High Swim Team, Icko is a man who is living at the YMCA at the time of his hiring. His son is in college and he spends all the money from his job at the Local Burger King to pay for tuition. Throughout the book, he finds a group of people that he can depend on and believe in. He develops a tiny bit of confidence and comes out of a small depression from being alone for so long.
T।J.: A mixed race teenage boy adopted as a baby by caucasian parents, T.J. knows that he is different. (His full name is "The Tao"). After he makes the decision to start a swim team at his school, he begins to care for others for the first time. He feels responsible for his team and learns what it means to work hard, and that he can reap the benefits with just a little determination.

Tay-Roy: Tay-Roy starts off his swimming career on the Cutter High team as a self-conscious body-builder looking for a new, less tedious way to be fit. He doesn't really know what he's doing, so he keeps to himself. But throughout the book, he continues to grow in confidence and becomes just an 'average' teenager. One thing that shows his growth is when he begins dating a girl who was previously in an abusive relationship, and tells her that she can never let herself be treated like that again. That he'll take care of her.