DJ has grown up on a farm, which due to all sorts of circumstances she is pretty much working single handed at the moment, it's quite a long time since she has been able to do anything much for herself and to make matters worse she finds herself coaching a guy from the opposing town's football team.
It's a coming of age tale, DJ turns 16 during the course of the book and grows up a lot, but she was actually already pretty mature in many ways. She was milking twice a day, haymaking, mowing, and taking care of everything out on the farm. It's a lot of responsibility and as someone who's done the whole, bale, load, stack bit and bringing livestock into sheds and stables because the snow is falling in a blizzard and the mucking out and the rest of it I can honestly say DJ is already a hell of a lot more mature than most 16 year olds. She's actually quite an impressive kid. The whole family has one big issue though, they don't talk about anything. It's fractured the family and DJ's actions over the summer could be the final nail in the coffin. ( )

Reviewed by Randstostipher "tallnlankyrn" Nguyen for TeensReadToo.com

The only sport that D.J. will truly ever know is football, what with most of her family playing it and the cows having names like Joe Namath. The only life D.J. Schwenk is used to is the farm life. Now that her two oldest brothers are gone to college, and never seem to stay in contact with them, and her father having a bad hip, it's up to D.J. and her brother, Curtis, the one that hardly ever talks, to get things done.

But this summer it looks like D.J. will be getting an extra hand from Brian Nelson, the football player from Hawley, the enemy school. Even though Brian is helping, he isn't very good at it. Let's just say his farm work is as bad as his football skills. But for some reason, everyone thinks he's the next greatest football player. What's worse is that D.J. is actually starting to like Brian, but he's the enemy and can hardly throw a ball. So what does D.J. do? Well, she starts to train Brian, since she would always have to help her brothers during football season, and maybe now Brian would see her as more than just a farm girl.

That's not the only issue that D.J. has though; her mother is working two jobs to support the family and it seems like she is keeping something from them. And D.J.'s best friend isn't being so friendly anymore. And what about the idea that just so suddenly pops up into D.J.'s mind, the one that says she should try out for the football team. Let's just hope that not everyone in her town will go crazy over this idea, especially her parents. But can she do it?

DAIRY QUEEN is an extremely cute coming-of-age novel. It goes against all the clichés where girls are just not good at guy sports. And D.J. is the perfect heroine, showing that anyone can do anything if they just put their mind to it. A wonderful story that is far from ice-cream -- but it still fills your heart with joy! ( )

D. J. was a strong female character who did not fit the traditional high school girl usually presented in YA novels. At times predictable, but there were surprises, as well. A good YA read. ( )

This was a sweet coming of age tale that takes place over a summer vacation and early school year.

The main character D.J. is a girl who's had to shoulder a lot of her family's farming while her father heals from a hip surgery. Her fathers friend, who's a football coach in another city, sends a snooty boy over to help out and she ends up training him for his upcoming football season. Somewhere along the way she decides she's going to try out for her schools football team and finds herself falling for this boy. On top of all of that she's got a ton of stuff with family and friends going on and not a whole lot of talking to muddle through it.

D.J. is an awkward, shy girl who you see start to come out of her shell as the summer progresses. You find yourself remembering what it was like to be that young and all the feelings and confusion that comes with it.

I found this to be a cute, funny, sweet story and the narrator did such a wonderful job telling it. It got my attention so much that I finished it in one day, spending much of my evening just sitting back and listening.

All in all I'd say I really enjoyed this book and will have to check out more stuff by Catherine sometime. ( )

Loved it! I loved how it was written with DJ speaking directly to me as the reader. I also liked the farm setting. There are kids who still work hard like DJ even though small farms like the Scwhenk's are getting harder to keep. ( )