The Tao "TJ" Jones is a part black, part Japanese, part white kid who was adopted by his parents after his biological mom thought crack was more important than her son. He's now in high school and approached by a teacher to help start the school's swim team. Reluctantly, he agrees and he sets out to find his motley crew of (non)swimmers. As a rule, TJ steers clear of organized sports despite being terrifically athletic. Mostly because his mother's abandonment instilled in him a serious case of rage fits that would frequently get him into trouble with the coaches and other teammates. Due to these rage issues, he continues to see the therapist that helped him as a child. When he shows up at her house one afternoon, he begins to help Heidi, a child who's both half black and has a psychotic, all-whites-only stepdaddy who loathes the existence of TJ. With the swim team's lettering requirements at stake and his family taking Heidi in when her stepdad loses it once more, TJ's life bounces between extremes. Fortunately, his heart is in the right place. He wants each and every misfit on his team to letter and he wants to help Heidi in any way he can. Can he do it? Can he help his team letter and fit in with his school and also help save a child in danger just because of her skin color?
Adolescent Fiction assignment. I was not a fan early on. It wasn't until the second half where I was absolutely addicted to reading it. You don't see almost anything in the second half coming! You feel terrible for Heidi, Chris and Mott. You want to hug Chris and smack some sense into Alicia. You become totally invested in the characters. I enjoyed how you might start to get bored with the swimming bits and then BOOM! The author would throw in some serious real life (mostly racist) drama at you that had you flipping the pages at light speed. You wanted to see these racist jerks get what was coming to them every time they even opened their mouths. I liked this so much more than I had anticipated. I did NOT see the end coming. I audibly gasped. That's how good it was.
Fun facts: the author had these characters written in a school shooting story, but once there were too many, he scrapped it but loved the characters. He was also a swimmer in his youth and had to start a swim team later in life with the same situation as in the book. He has also worked with children with problems such as those of Heidi and TJ. Basically, he's awesome.
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