- Heroes come in any shape, color, ability or size, and friendship can bridge nearly any divide.
- WHALE TALK is the story of TJ (The Tao) Jones, a young black teen determined to live by his own code in the very white city of Cutter, WA. At Cutter High, TJ is a problem to be solved: maverick, trouble-making and maddeningly articulate, TJ is also the school's most gifted athlete. Though he resists every prodding to join an organized sport, TJ instead enlists a team of outsiders for his new swim team...in a school without a swimming pool. His team may never win a race but they learn to define themselves on their terms - finding dignity and friendship in a school that has shunned them...all while TJ becomes an unstoppable force in the pool and out. WHALE TALK is inspiring, hilarious, thrilling, heartbreaking and by its end, truly shocking.
- The biological son of a white mother and a half-black, half-Japanese father, The Tao Jones-known as T. J.-lives with his loving, adoptive white family in the nearly all-white town of Cutter, Washington. T. J.'s adoptive mother, Abby, is a child-abuse lawyer, and his adoptive father, John Paul, is a community volunteer and guardian ad litem, who is still haunted by his youth.
At Cutter High School, T. J. is a physically impressive senior who has refused to join any sports teams as a form of anger management, due to his anger issues since early childhood. His non-involvement irritates much of the faculty, who pride themselves on the physical achievements of their students, displaying favoritism toward their star athletes, such as Mike Barbour, a vicious bully. T. J. often finds Barbour harassing Chris Coughlin, an intellectually disabled student who must unfairly live in the wake of a widely admired older brother who died in a freak accident.
John Simet, an English teacher and friend of T. J.'s, helps TJ start a swim team when the school principal gives TJ an ultimatum after an in school fight to join a sports team or be forcibly transferred to the alternative school. Simet convinces T. J. to be captain of the swim team and recruit its members, even though the school has no pool. Inspired to spite the school's pretentious athletics program and its glorification of bullies like Barbour, T. J. assembles a deliberately bizarre and motley crew of six swimmers, including the cognitively slow Chris; the obnoxiously intellectual Dan Hole; the bodybuilder and musician Tay-Roy Kibble; the rude, antisocial, and one-legged Andy Mott; the completely nondescript Jackie Craig; and the obese and insecure Simon DeLong. T. J. hopes to have the whole team meet letterman requirements in order to embarrass the rest of the athletics program and their cherished school symbols.
Meanwhile, an even more vicious friend of Mike Barbour, the racist and alcoholic Rich Marshall, is a die-hard alumnus of the school's athletics program. Rich has recently adopted the half-black illegitimate child of his young wife, Alicia, and renamed the little girl the whitest name he can think of: "Heidi." T. J. learns of Heidi's brutal and racialized abuse at the hands of Rich. When Alicia and Heidi finally acquire a restraining order against Rich, the Joneses invite them to live in their home, but Rich begins stalking the house and making drunken threats.
T. J.'s swimmers gradually open up about the complexities of their personal lives, and all the members, except T. J. himself, meet the requirements to be lettermen. Shocked, the rest of the athletics program, led by Barbour and a prideful teacher, Coach Benson, challenge the requirements that Simet set for the team. T. J. negotiates a deal with Barbour, offering that if Barbour can outswim Chris, Benson will have justification to revoke the swim team's letters. Insulting Chris's intellect, Barbour agrees, but Chris easily wins the competition. The swim team celebrates, but also saddens with the knowledge that they will not be swimming together next year. Rich, upset by Heidi's presence at the pool and seeing her cheering for the swim team, draws a gun and aims at her. John Paul instinctively jumps between them and takes the bullet when Rich fires.
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