After I read this book it made me take a second look at how I treated people and if they deserved the way I treated them because of there habits or social standings. In this book T.J. Jones (the J is redundant you"ll read that a million times in the book) is a mix of black, Japanese, and white descendants which gives him his fair share of racial abuse thrown at him. This wasn't fair at all towards him because he was the nicest guy who would stand up for anyone that couldn't stand up for themselves against a bully or malicious jock. When I finished this book and while reading this book it made me want to get out and help someone.
Chris Crutcher's books have an odd way of getting the reader to feel like they are just as involved in the story as the main character. When Mike Barbour was picking on Chris Coughlin for wearing his dead brothers letterman jacket it was sickening. It was even worse when the football coach supported his behavior. When T.J.'s favorite teacher Simet is forced into starting a swim team and T.J. is dragged into it, he gets a genius idea to get even with Mike Barbour and Rich Marshall. His idea was to get some of the misfits of Cutter High including Chris to get them all letterman jackets to get even with the super jocks of the school. I felt the sense of revenge like I was T.J. making up these ideas and ways to get revenge. When they went to swim meets I almost felt nervous about them coming up too like I was actually on the swim team.
T.J. Jones is my favorite character for many different reasons. First of all he has an incredibly funny name The Toa Jones. It was giving to him by his hippie mom probably doing drugs at the time. T.J. is a super athlete who could excel at any sport he would go out for but since he doesn't agree with the schools athletic system he will not participate in any of them. He is an extremely nice and will stand up for anyone who can't defend themselves.