DJ finds out about herself and growning up while training the rival football teams quarterback while running the family farm. Her Dad sidetracked by a hip replacement deals with his issues while DJ tries to discover who she is and what she wants out of life. ( )

I had heard nothing but good reviews for this book, so I went in expecting a lot and I wasn’t disappointed. Besides I am a little bit of a farm girl myself, so I totally related to D.J. I could barely read about bailing and unloading hay without my skin itching!! The only time I was truly happy to get up before four in the morning was to feed my cute little feeder calf, and the fact that I could go back to sleep afterward helped too.Dairy Queen is the story of D.J. Schwenk. And let me tell you this girl is overworked, in more ways than one. Not only does she do almost all, if not all of the work on her family’s dairy farm she also has to struggle daily with her uncommunicative family. And this family needs to talk, because needless to say, they have some problems.Brain Nelson happens to show up one day, and D.J.’s life starts spinning. Brain is the quarterback of Hawley the rival of D.J.’s school. At first Brain and D.J. don’t really get along (well duh), but they make it work. D.J. is going to be Brains trainer for the summer, not only does she know a lot about cows, but apparently she knows a lot about football. Her two older brothers are football players extraordinaire, so D.J. couldn’t help but pick up some things here and there. But Brain ends up helping D.J. in the end, which she totally didn’t see coming. He makes her realize how truly frustrated she is with her life, and how much she loves football.There is so much more to this story, than I can summerize, but I don’t want to spoil the milk for anyone else! Sorry, I just had to! Anyway. D.J.’s character is totally believable, as a person, let alone a teenager. She struggles with friendship, sexuality, confidence and even first love. She just blew me out of the pasture, ha! I know I did it again! I can’t wait to read The Off Season. ( )

Not what I expected - I expected something very light and funny. This book has much more serious overtones. However, the protagonist, D.J., is wonderful. Her voice is very distinct and unique. She's a mixture of overly mature for her age and sweetly naive and unquestioning.

When D.J.'s father damages his hip, the burden of running their small family dairy farm falls to her. She must give up the sports she loves in order to do the milking, the haying, the manure clean-up. She even ends up failing a class when her farm duties take up so much time she can't get her school work done. And through all of this, D.J. never utters a word of complaint.

But then Brian Nelson shows up at the farm, sent to the Schwenk farm by his coach to trade work for football training. Brian is the quarterback for a rival high school, and D.J. is a football expert despite being a girl. At first she can't imagine spending any time with the spoiled Brian, but over the course of several weeks, the two develop a friendship, and D.J. finds herself with a big crush on a guy she believes would never look at her twice.

Then she gets a great idea - put the football skills she uses to train Brian to good use by joining her own school's football team. She experiences resistance at every turn, but she's determined to finally do something she wants to do rather than always doing what's expected of her. Even if it means making Brian angry.

While I felt sorry for D.J. and think her parents are horrible people for putting so much responsibility on her young shoulders, she never whines or feels sorry for herself. She's a great heroine, and I'm anxious to read the next installment in this series to see what happens to her. ( )

Last word first: It's farm-tastic! (hehe) A fun, if not super-deep, "growing up" kind of story.

Description: When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said. Harsh words indeed, from Brian Nelson of all people. But, D. J. can’t help admitting, maybe he’s right. When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said. Stuff like why her best friend Amber isn’t so friendly anymore. Or why her little brother Curtis never opens his mouth. Why her mom has two jobs and a big secret. Why her college-football- star brothers won’t even call home. Why her dad would go ballistic if she tried out for the high school football team herself. And why Brian is so, so out of her league. When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said. Welcome to the summer that fifteen-year-old D. J. Schwenk of Red Bend, Wisconsin, learns to talk, and ends up having an awful lot of stuff to say. (from the book jacket)

My thoughts: DJ thinks she is writing a book about football, but it turns out that she's writing a book about growing up. With her father injured and unable to work, her brothers otherwise occupied, and her mom working to keep the family afloat, DJ has landed the entire responsibility for keeping the family farm functional. Does that seem a little crazy to anyone? Well, it seems a little crazy to DJ, and when she lands the task of training football slacker Brian, she keeps a training journal to keep herself sane.

I don't really care for football. I couldn't tell you the difference between a running back and a linebacker, actually. But I did enjoy this book. DJ's painfully shy, no-nonsense character had her winning my sympathy almost instantly. I had a hard time buying into the premise, though. Farm work is HARD!

Essentially, this book follows DJ's journey to finding her voice and her willingness to speak up. Along the way to learning to advocate for herself, she gains some lessons on understanding others. I enjoyed watching her various relationships develop as she managed to shed the layers of silence. ( )

The story of a 15 year old girl dealing with a farm that's falling apart and a family that isn't talking. The is a sequel called The Off Season ( )