I read and reviewed the previous book in this series, Dairy Queen, not long ago, and I wasn't a wholehearted fan. However, enough people recommended that I continue with the series that I took their advice. I am SO happy I did, because I absolutely loved The Off Season!

DJ, with her down-home, farmgirl sensibilities, is delightful. Even though I was never a big sports girl, I love that DJ is strong and athletic and that she's proud of it. DJ feels like a real person, and she has this deadpan way of speaking that cracks me up. A favorite quote (just so you'll get it, Doing Something Stupid is what gets you pregnant): "...and while I hadn't Done Anything Stupid, I wasn't sure where exactly I stood on the whole subject. I mean, it's not that I wanted to do anything Really Stupid, but I wouldn't be so against doing something Kind of Stupid- something A Little Silly, maybe."

I felt like The Off Season had a lot more substance to it than Dairy Queen. This is due largely to an accident that befalls one of DJ's family members. As the family starts to deal with the changes that have befallen them, they all start to grow up a little, and actually deal with what's happening, even if they can't talk to each other. It's a Schwenk thing. This story really dealt with a lot, while still being light-hearted overall and maintaining a PG rating.

So, good characters, strong writing, entertaining plot.... definitely recommended. ( )

D.J. is back at it again in the sequel to Dairy Queen, The Off Season. Things are finally on the upside for D.J. She is friends again with Amber and even Amber’s girlfriend Dale, and she is still sort of dating cutie quarterback Brian Nelson. She couldn’t be more happier than playing football for Red Bend and the guys actually accept her as part of the team.But as we know, D.J.’s life has been anything but easy. She injures her shoulder during practice and has to decide between continuing playing football and possibly sustaining her shoulder injury, which would keep her from playing basketball. A basketball scholarship is D.J.’s ticket out of Red Bend. Then things with Brian start to go downhill, he seems fine when they are alone, but he never wants to be with her in public. To top that all off, Win is injured and D.J. flies across the country to take care of him for her parents.I almost thought it was to much for D.J. to handle, I know it would be more than enough for me. Ultimately D.J. prevails like I knew she would. Of all the books I’ve read, D.J. is one of the few characters I’ve found myself truly admiring. The Off Season was more than I expected and I sincerely hope this isn’t the last of Miss D.J. Schwenk. (Even though I haven’t seen anything official on catherinemurdock.com there is a book cover with Dairy Queen III??? on it, I know I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed!) ( )

Richie's Picks: THE OFF SEASON by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Houghton Mifflin, June 2007, ISBN: 0-618-68695-9

"And I called my farm 'muscle in my arm'
But the land was sweet and good and I did what I could"
-- Traditional, "When I First Came to this Land"

If you have yet to read DAIRY QUEEN -- a Richie's Picks Best of 2006 title, and the book for which this is the sequel -- then you might hold off reading this review and, instead, go read DAIRY QUEEN first.

"All of a sudden he blurted out, 'You ever date a football player?'
"I thought for a minute about going to the movies with Troy Lundstrom. 'Not really.'
" 'Me neither,' he said, looking off over the trees." -- from DAIRY QUEEN

THE OFF SEASON picks up right where DAIRY QUEEN ends, with both the new school year and the official high school football season beginning while, at the same time, the relationship between DJ (Darlene Joyce) Schwenk and Brian Nelson is seriously revving up. For many readers, the humor and complexities in the evolving relationship between these two football players from rival high schools will serve quite well by itself in making this a great read.

Readers will also become thoroughly caught up in the thought-provoking and well-researched aspects of the book that deal with the grave, life-altering risks and consequences involved when twenty-two large, fast, and well-practiced players repeatedly smash into each other on the field of play:

"Everyone else stood up, getting off the ground in that way you do when you've hit the grass a million times in your life and you know you'll hit it a million more. I wanted to stand up too, stand like you always do. Because if you don't, it means that you're either really wimpy or really hurt, and who would want to be either one of those? But I couldn't."

But apart from the romance and the violence, the aspect of THE OFF SEASON upon which I've been reflecting involves the Schwenk farm serving as a model of so many of today's family farms across America -- at least, the ones that are still remaining in the face of new housing developments and the consolidation of family farms into the agribusinesses about which Eric Schlosser speaks in CHEW ON THIS http://www.richiespicks.com/users/sto...

"I might as well just quit high school right now and work for Dad, slaving away for eighteen hours a day while we lost even more money and after a century of backbreaking work had to sell to some developer who'd turn our beautiful soil into driveways and basements, and our cows into dinner."

"Scarecrow on a wooden cross, blackbird in the barn
Four hundred empty acres that used to be my farm
I grew up like my daddy did, my grandpa cleared this land
When I was five I walked the fence while grandpa held my hand
-- John Mellencamp "Rain on the Scarecrow"

I was a little kid on Long Island, far enough back in time that I can remember when there was still a dairy farm on Manetta Hill Road in Plainview (back when the Long Island Expressway only extended east to South Oyster Bay Road). When we moved east from Plainview to East Northport, there was still a dairy over on Jericho Turnpike in Elwood, and I'd walk along the periphery of hundreds of acres of potatoes and pumpkins each morning after they opened Grace Hubbs School in 1964. Meanwhile, Shari grew up out here, down in Silicon Valley when it was still full of apricot and plum orchards. Now that is all long gone, too.

In the upcoming Richard Peck book, ON THE WINGS OF HEROES, there is a very funny scene involving the young main character, his best friend, and an old car they find which had been manufactured locally by a company that only built a hundred or so of them before falling victim to the economies of scale that the larger manufacturers were already achieving back in the 1930s. We've all seen the disappearing family grocery stores, bookstores, stationary stores, hardware stores, and coffee shops. An old goatfarming friend of mine was complaining the other day because there is no longer a corner barbershop to go sit in and chat while waiting your turn, and so now he is required to make an appointment to go get a haircut in a corporate-owned salon.

There is a romanticism concerning family farms that remains alive in America. Kids are still growing up with CHARLOTTE'S WEB and Old McDonald's Farm just as we Baby Boomers did. But from back in the days that my grandfather was learning to read until the recent time when our current middle school students were learning to read, the farming population in America has dwindled from 32 million people to under 5 million. Does that romanticism mean that family farms are something to be supported and preserved in a way that has not been done for other businesses? A 1998 USDA study http://http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea... found that federal policies over the past couple of decades have actually favored agribusinesses over the family farms.

THE OFF SEASON will have many readers thinking about whether something should be done to help preserve this way of life. As with DAIRY QUEEN, it will certainly erase many a romantic notion about farming for some readers, and will undoubtedly ignite some notions of becoming a farmer for others.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks
BudNotBuddy@aol.com ( )

D.J's life is starting to be a little bit brighter. Her and Brian are dating, her best friend is speaking to her again, and overall, life is working out. For a few days anyways. Suddenly, everything goes downhill. D.J. hurts her shoulder and has to decide between playing high school football, or basketball, which would give her a chance for a scholarship, Her family starts worrying about money, best friend Amber and her girlfriend Dale decide to move away, and her little brother is going off with his girlfriend. However, it gets even worse when her brother, Will, is injured badly in a football accident and ends up in the hospital. Will D.J.'s life start looking up again? Will Will's injury get better? Or will her life keep getting a little bit darker day by day?

"The Off Season" is the exciting sequel to Catherine Gilberts "Dairy Queen." I love how realistic D.J. is and how her character is so easy to relate to. Like "Dairy Queen", the book keeps you on your toes with exciting twists and turns that are unexpected. The way the story is written makes the reader feel like she really knows D.J. Overall, "The Off Season" was a great, light, novel that, like "Dairy Queen", would make a great summer read!

D.J. Schwenk is a junior in high school in rural Red Bend, Wisconsin. Her family has two passions: dairy farming (which is out of necessity) and football (their true delight). D.J.’s older brothers and father were all football stars, and now D.J. herself is playing linebacker for the high school football team. Her life seems to be going well especially when she becomes close with the quarterback of the rival football team, Brian Nelson. However, situations change and D.J. worries when her parents struggle with making ends meet, Brian ignores her around his friends, and her best friend moves away. Still none of that compares to the heartbreak of seeing her older brother, Win, become paralyzed because of a football injury. Soon D.J. becomes the main caretaker of her brother while he goes through rehabilitation, and she learns how to become a stronger person with deeper perspective.

The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock is a sequel to Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen introduces readers to the appealing Schwenk family and D.J. and Brian’s relationship. While it would be helpful to read Dairy Queen first, it is not necessary to enjoy The Off Season. Furthermore, although The Off Season deals with heavy subject matter, there is humor and joy sprinkled throughout the novel. ( )