Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher is a interesting book.  TJ is multiracial boy who is being raised by adoptive parents.  He attends a mostly white school and has issues with the jocks at the school.  This book show how bullies can can affect students.  TJ starts a swimming team to help out one of his favorite teachers.  This book shows the struggle of TJ personally and and with the jocks as he stand for what he believes in.  It is a humorous book yet, it is about some serious issues.  This is definitely a book for older students I would say high school. I again, was not really prepared for the ending of this book.  
I was personally interested in this story because i have raised a son that we adopted.  My son is bi-racial and we were very lucky that he never encountered problems like TJ when he was growing up.