Book Introduction and Summer Reading Questions.

     My book is about a High School Senior named T.J. Jones. He is struggling against bullies and racism all while trying to run a swim team for his school, Cutter High. The author Chris Crutcher is a writer who usually writes about serious social issues and other serious subjects. A lot of his books are not accepted by some schools because of the content they contain.
   Now for the questions.

1.      Who is the main character and what is he like?

The main character’s name is The Tao Jones or as he is usually called T.J. Jones. T.J. is a very athletic person who is a great swimmer and basketball player. He is a helpful person who volunteers a lot of his time to other things. He is also a stubborn person as he finds it hard to let go of bad things that have been done to others.

2.      The three parts of the story.

The beginning of the story covers how T.J. got adopted and why he is creating a swim team for his school. The middle of the book tells about how the swim team gets better every swim meet and the social problems each character starts to overcome. The end of the book is when the team finally achieves their goal- which is to get varsity jackets, and they all overcome their social issues. However, T.J. sacrificed his jacket so everyone else could get one.

3.      Experiences characters had and what the author is trying to say through them.

T.J. Jones has a lot of bad experiences usually included bullying, racism and even being shot at.  He is called racist terms by other adults and is even shot at after a basketball game by the angry loser, but T.J. manages to ignore it all. I think Chris Cruthcher is trying to say that you shouldn’t let bullies get to you. If you ignore them like T.J. does, you will be better off like T.J. is at the end when all his bullies are punished or change.

The Issues

            1. How does bullying affect three characters in this story.

            2. Two specific events where these social issues seem real and important.

One specific event is when the little girl rubs her own skin off to try and look white. This makes racism seem real and personal because it could really happen to someone we know and can inflict a major injury. It could really happen because the girl’s father tells her to do that. Another event is when T.J.s father is killed because they took in the Heidi. This seems real and important because once again it could really happen to someone we know and can change people’s lives forever like it did to T.J.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/chris-crutcher/whale-talk.htm