Novel Description

Plot Summary

T.J. Jones is with Mr. Simet one day and Mr. Simet asks T.J. to join the first swim team at Cutter High, because he is coaching it. T.J. says no at first but then he is pressured in to it by Mr. Simet. T.J. is also put in charge of requiting people to the swim team. When T.J. walks into the hallway he sees Barbour picking on Chris so he heads over there and tells Mike to knock it off, and tells Chris not to let guys like that bother him. T.J. is often saving Chris from Mike Babour. Later on T.J. asks Chris to join the swim team, and Chris agrees. Then T.J. puts out flyers and tells people about it until he has enough people for a swim team. When T.J. starts to work out at All Night Fitness. He sees a guy sleeping there. The guy wakes up and tells him his name is Oliver and Oliver tells T.J. his story of how he works a ton of full time jobs and how he couldn't pay for his house because he needed to put his son through college. T.J. agreed not to tell on him to All Night Fitness. Later on at the swim teams practice Oliver started being the assistant coach. Oliver, later on, got the nickname icko. Then icko started taking drivers-ed two so he could drive the bus for the swim team when they go to meets. On the bus on the way back from the swim meets the swim teem really opens up to each other. Andy tells the story of his leg. Chris talks about Brian. Dan works on having a regular vocab. And everyone listens to each other open up. This is a really important time for the swim team to bond.
One day T.J. went to visit Georgia. Georgia had another kid over for a therapy session. It was a little five year old, black girl, named Heidi. Heidi was abused by Rich (her step-dad). This made T.J. really annoyed and mad at Rich. Heidi and T.J. really got along well. A few days later Georgia called T.J. to ask him if Heidi could live at his house for a while. T.J. asked his parents and they said yes, so Heidi started staying at T.J.'s houses. Then Alicia and the twins (Heidi's mom and brother) joined Heidi and T.J.'s house. Rich Marshall started stocking the house.
Meanwhile at school T.J. was fighting for the right of the swim team getting letter jackets. At the last meet of the year for the whole team Jackie, who never talks, started crying and said who much he was going to miss the swim team. Everyone else agreed also so they decided that they would try other sports together. On the very last meet that only T.J. went to, he did super good on the first two races and he only had one left but he realized that Cutter High was way too competitive and so he decided to instead of trying his hardest and getting a ton of points for Cutter High he swam super slow and easily. Then back at school T.J. and the lettering board people had a huge discussion about if the team got letter jackets. The swim team won and everyone but T.J. lettered. Then the swim team decided to start a basketball team for Hoopfest. When their team was playing against Rich and Mike's team. T.J.'s team won. Rich got mad and got out a gun. He aimed for his step-daughter Heidi, But T.J.'s dad jumped in the way and was hit, and died. T.J., at the end of the book, meets his step-brother that he never knew about and neither did their dad. Kyle Couples and T.J. decided to get to know each other over the summer.



Setting


The Novel Whale Talk takes place in Washington, United States (Although they travel to other states for swim meets). More specifically in Cutter High School, T.J.'s house, Georgia's house, Marshall Logging, All Night Fitness, the school bus, other schools(for swim meets), etc.



Character Description and Development



T.J. Jones- T.J.is the main character in this book. His real name is The Tao(pronounced Dow) Jones, but he just goes by T.J. T.J. was adopted when he was very young, and he doesn't even remember his original parents. His ethnicity is African, Japanese, and European. T.J. is a very caring character. He is usually very kind and gentle accept when it comes to Mike Barbour and Rich Marshall.

Rich Marshall-Rich is an awful, disgusting character. He is Alicia's husband, Heidi's step-dad, and the Twins dad. Rich is extremely racist, and takes out all of his anger on poor Heidi. He is abusive and super, super mean.

Heidi- Heidi Marshall is a very sweet little five year old girl. Heidi is black. Her biological father Willis was also black, but he left and now Rich is her step father. Heidi is beaten by Rich for not doing any thing at all. If she forgets to clean out the dogs dish or spills something on the ground, she gets so many beatings for each one of these. Poor little Heidi has no way to escape this awful way of life until she is put into T.J.'s home. Then everything changes she gets tons of good attention and everyone loves her. ---Only until Alicia took her kids over to see Rich and he told her to scrub off her skin color with a type of metal scrubbing thing. Of course Heidi thinks he is right and she scrubs off her skin until blood is everywhere.---Heidi is a very sweet little five year old girl.

Alicia Marshall- Alicia is Rich's wife. Alicia dated Rich is high school. Then when she was in college she fell in love with a black man named Willis. They had Heidi and then they were planning on getting married until Willis got in a car accident and was paralyzed. Willis didn't think that it was right for Alicia and Heidi to have to put up with his disability so he left them. Alicia got a job at a store that happened to be owned by Rich and he convinced her to get married to him. After they got married, they had the twins. The twins sound like they are very spoiled by Rich. Heidi on the other hand is a reject.

The Twins- The book never actually says there names (or not that I can remember). The twins are Alicia and Rich's. They are favored very much by Rich. We don't know much more about the twins.

Willis- Willis was Alicia's original huband who got paralized and ran (not litteraly) away.

Icko-Icko or Oliver lives at All Night Fitness. He works a ton of jobs, and the reason why he lives at All Night Fitness is because he wanted to put his son through college. Oliver is also the swim teams assistant coach. Icko is a nickname the swim team gave to Oliver.

Mike Barbour- Mike is another very mean character. He is very good friends with Rich. For fun he picks on Chris and hits his girlfriend, Kristen. Mike is enemies with T.J. because T.J. stands up for both Chris and Kristen. There are many conflicts that occur between T.J. and Mike. Mike is a very mean character.

Kristen Sweetwater-Kristen used to be Mike's girlfriend until He started hitting her. Then Tay-Roy really liked Kristen and then Kristen and Tay-Roy started out and they were a much better couple. Kristen is also a good friend of Carly's.

Tay-Roy-Tay-Roy is a really great character. Tay-roy is a very muscular member of the swim team. Tay-Roy is super sweet and caring, and I'm sure Kristen is really Glad to have him for a boyfriend.

Dan Hole- Dan is another very interesting character. Dan has an amazing vocabulary. He is always using humongous words to describe anything he talks about. The swim team came up with a plan to get Dan to talk regularly... Anytime Dan says a word that Icko doesn't understand he has to do ten push-ups. Dan is a very unique and fun character who adds a lot to this movie.

Simon- Simon is on the swim team. Simon is very large. This is a very big disadvantage for him in swimming. Over all Simon is a very kind and compassionate character.

Jackie Craig- Jackie is another member of the swim team. In the first 9/10th's of the book Jackie says a total of about 2 sentences. Then at the last race of the year Jackie starts crying. No-one knows why until Jackie starts talking and says how much he's gonna miss being on the swim team. Everyone on the team feels the exact same as Jackie and they totally agree and relate to him and his conession.

Chris Coughlin- Chris is a reject from Cutter High. Chris was born addicted to crack cocaine and it doesn't help the when he was only one year old he wouldn't stop crying, so his mom's boyfriend took Saran Wrap and wrapped it abound Chris' head and not only did it stop Chris from crying but it also gave him permanent brain damage. At that point in Chris' life his aunt and uncle became his guardians. Unfortunately Chris is often the victim of Mike Barbour when he feels the need to pick on someone. Most of the time Barbour is bothering Chris about wearing his brothers letter Jacket. Chris' older half brother Brian was and all-star sport guy. He was always there when Chris was being picked on, until Brian got stuck in a rock climbing accident and died. Luckily T.J. comes to Chris' rescue as much as he can, but that's not often enough to stop the persecution that comes flying at Chris. T.J. invites Chris be a member of the swim team, and Chris happily agrees. As you might have noticed most of the events in Chris' life happen to be pretty disastrous until T.J. comes along.

Andy Mott- Andy is a very courageous character. Andy is very outgoing to everyone. He also gets tons of detentions for is courageousness. When Andy was young he was molested by his mom's boyfriend. Also his mom's boyfriend tied his leg to a pipe under the sink. Andy got gangrene and had to get his leg removed. Now he has a fake leg and a disadvantage to the swim team. Andy is a very flavorful and fun character.

Carly-Carly is T.J.'s girlfriend. She and him get along well and that's about all we know about Carly.


Mr. Simet- Mr. Simet is the swim team's coach and a teacher at Cutter High. He is also a friend to T.J. Mr. Simet is a very good swim coach and he is very kind, and caring.


Glenda- Glenda is T.J.'s biological mother. T.J. was adopted young and he doesn't even really remember Glenda.


T.J.'s mom- T.J.'s mom is a super kind lady. She works as a lawyer for child abuse. She is very compassionate towards children and is very caring.


T.J.'s dad- T.J.'s dad is also very kind. He used to work for a delivery company. On day he was at a town delivering something but he saw a young widow he decided he'd be staying a little longer than he'd thought. When he left he forgot to check under his triers, and a while later he realized that the widow's young child had gotten caught under his tiers and he ran over him. For the rest of his life he would never forget that moment and from then on he spent the rest of his life helping kids when ever he got the chance. Then he got married to T.J.'s adoptive mother.


Kyle Couples- Kyle is T.J.'s step brother that he never knew about and neither did his dad. Kyle was the widow's and T.J.'s dad's kid that his dad never knew about. At the end T.J. and Kyle meet for the first time and as the book ends it sounds like they will get to know eachother pretty well.