DJ has picked up the slack at the dairy farm ever since her father hurt his hip, and now their neighbor wants her to train the rival team's quarterback!
This is a riveting book. Now, a lot of books have been written about farming, but never one about a high school girl trying to run a dairy farm all by herself. This fact alone makes the reader feel for DJ. Then the addition of a spoiled boy who needs to be trained for the rival football team really starts the action, but slowly. This is one of those stories in which nothing seems to happen as it is read, until the end and the reader realizes how much went on. It's a lovely story, with unexpected twists that will leave the reader cheering for DJ and her right to go for something she never knew she loved.
Recommended for high school and public libraries, especially ones with readers that need a little push. ( )

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock is one of those books my book bully kept badgering me to read. So on her suggestion I went out and bought the paperback. However, that wasn't good enough for her....to truly appreciate the greatness of this book I needed to listen to it on audio. Never one to go against my book bully I immediately placed the audio version on hold at my local library. A few days later I was able to pop the first disc into my car radio and I was soon whisked away to Red Bend, Wisconsin by the mesmerizing voice of Natalie Moore.

Dairy Queen isn't a fast paced story its slow and mellowing and a nice change from the speed of every day life. DJ is such a relatable character I loved getting to know her. There is mystery trying to figure out the events that occurred to cause the split that divided her family. I also admired her courage in making the decision to try out for the football team. When I was in high school there was a girl who wanted to try out for the team, coming from a town where football is everything and watching the uproar that followed when she wanted to try out. So I could picture clearly the struggle that DJ went through...which wasn't as big a deal as I thought it might become. Dairy Queen was a fun story and enjoyed the time that I spent listening to it. I really need to start The Off Season so that I can find out what's next for DJ, her budding romance and re-connecting with her best friend. Dairy Queen was a great book to listen to on audio I really enjoyed Moore's narration and think I might have to check out some other books that she's narrated.

As originally posted on my blog Ticket to Anywhere. ( )

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. ( )

I liked this book, it showed a good strong girl character. The girl wants to play football and is kind of afraid she'll be shunned for it but decides to go for it anyway.

"When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said"

After D.J.'s father injured his hip, she had to take over the bulk of the work on their family's farm. Having to milk twice a day, hay whole fields, and clean out the barn, there's a lot that doesn't get said. And when Brian Nelson, Hawley's QB and most arrogant arch rival of Red Bend, shows up one day to work on the farm, D.J. doesn't take it lightly. Now with a best friend who's acting strange, a brother who won't talk, a family who doesn't communicate well, and a boy who may or may not be just the person D.J. needs, she must dig deep down to figure out who she is. And that she is not, by any stretch of the meaning, a cow.

I loved D.J.'s voice in this novel. Going on the journey with D.J. trying to find out who she is and becoming comfortable in her own skin was funny, sad, and heart-warming. The scenes with Brian and D.J. talking but not talking were incredibly realistic in their ackward, there isn't always something to say manner. Their encounters were also hilarious. The relationship that builds between D.J. and Brian is so beautiful and believable because it's one that roots and ends in friendship, which is hard to find in books nowadays (between a boy and a girl). The plot twists and turns that come about are surprising and delightful. The sports scenes were accurate while still keeping the excitement in pacing. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this original novel about farms and football. It was a curve ball of a book I didn't see coming, and those are the best kind. D.J. really puts her heart into the book and it's clear from the beginning. Although she sometimes can be very self-hating, she learns things about herself and life at a pace that I think we all have or will. I would reccommend this book to anyone who likes reading about a family that comes together, a sweet first love, and anyone who likes (or would like to learn, as I did) about football and milking cows! This was dazzling! ( )

DJ has grown up in dairy farming, football loving, non-talking family. She spends the summer running the family farm since her dad is hurt and training the rival school's quarterback. She discovers along the way that she wants to play football too, and that there's a lot about life she doesn't know. This was a great audiobook with a narrator who had a great Wisconsin accent and the story was just fantastic. I really enjoyed listening as DJ goes through the struggles of high school and all the things that come along with growing up. While many things fit in just a little too nicely overall it was a great story with a good moral. This would be great for high school girls that love football. ( )

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 ( )

I loved this. DJ works her butt of on the family farm, while her dad potters around with an injury and her older football star brothers have fled to college. When a player from an opposing school team is sent to help on the farm for the summer, she ends up training him - only to have things fall apart when she joins her school football team herself.
I would like to be friends with DJ, and I'll introduce her to as many people as possible. And it is great to see a sports novel that is more than 'girl tried out for team and boys are mean'. And Yay for sequel! ( )

Richie's Picks: DAIRY QUEEN by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Houghton Mifflin, May 2006, ISBN: 0-618-68307-0

"What do you want from life
Someone to love
And somebody that you can trust
What do you want from life
To try and be happy
While you do the nasty things you must"
--The Tubes

"So when Brian Nelson stepped out of his fancy new truck in his fancy new work boots that his mother probably bought him at Wal Mart, I was just about as angry as I've ever been. Brian Nelson's a Hawley quarterback. Hawley's backup quarterback, but still. Quarterbacks are always pretty full of themselves--even Win was sometimes, though he had a right to be -- and Brian Nelson is just about the worst. He gets top grades and his father owns a dealership so of course he has a new Cherokee, and all the girls are after him, and last year he had scouts looking at him even though he wasn't a starter because his grades are so good that he'd raise the team GPA, which coaches always like. But ever since I've been watching him play, ever since junior high even, whenever he fumbles or messes up or gets intercepted, he always right off the bat blames someone else, which is really annoying to me and I bet it's even annoyinger to everyone else on his team who's working so hard. He's the very worst that a lazy, stuck-up, spoiled Hawley quarterback could be.
"But there he stood in his fancy new work boots and his Hawley Football cutoffs and his Hawley Football T-shirt. 'Hey, Mr. Schwenk, how's your hip doing.' "

Mr. Schwenk, D.J.'s dad, needs a walker these days after thoroughly trashing his hip while moving the manure spreader. At the end of this summer D.J. will be returning for eleventh-grade at Red Bend High--whose arch rival is neighboring Hawley High. Her older brothers were stars on Red Bend's team a few years ago and D.J. knows first-hand how hard they trained every summer in preparation for football season--she'd always been there as their necessary extra body for running routes and catching passes. But the athletically talented D.J. had to quit the Red Bend girls' basketball team last winter, forget about spring track, and watch her grades go into free-fall after needing to take over all the farm work on the Wisconsin dairy that's been in her family for generations. ("You can't milk thirty-two cows with a walker.") And now, thanks to the connection between her dad and the Hawley Football coach Jimmy Ott, that lazy, stuck-up, spoiled Hawley quarterback Brian Nelson has pulled up to spend the summer in her face, helping out on her farm.

"Brian kept sitting down. He'd lug a bale up the stack and then sit down on it, shaking out his arms each time like there was nothing in them. I've never seen anyone move as slow as Brian, not even Grandpa Warren with his arthritis. It was like he was in a contest to see who could do the least work, only he was the only contestant. Plus he was really angry now, which was good because it kept my mind off how thirsty I was. He muttered something under his breath.
" 'What?' I asked.
" 'You'd probably jump off the roof if they told you to.'
" 'What are you talking about?'
" 'Don't you see how you live? You do all the work they expect you to do and you don't even mind. It's like you're a cow. And one day in about fifty years they're going to put you on a truck and take you away to die and you're not even going to mind that either.' Brian shook his head like he was truly sorry."

Little does D.J. know, upon Brian's first arriving at the farm, that she will find herself utilizing the knowledge of her brothers' workouts to spend much of the summer in a cow pasture training that spoiled Hawley quarterback for his football season.

The scenes involving the misadventures of her dad's taking over the family's cooking and watching "The Food Channel," and one involving D.J.'s best friend Amber and are among the funniest bits of YA I have ever read. But there is also a silo-and-a-half full of stuff about life and family communications and farming to think about here, even if you haven't actually gone through an agricultural experience like I did. (I woke up twenty-something years ago to realize that the highlight of my eighteen-hour workdays on the farm was the arrival of the mail. And that eighteen hours was not nearly enough time to get done what needed doing.)

"And that's what I thought about all night long. All this stuff you never hear on Oprah Winfrey, which you can understand because if I got on the show and started talking, everyone in the audience would probably kill themselves."

Set in the land of the Cheeseheads, Catherine Gilbert Murdock's first novel is a brilliant tale about the young woman who decides she is not going to be just another cow.

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

D.J has decided that she is like a cow. She does everything her parents tell her, milk the cows, bring in the hay, do the rest of the chores, actually, she does everything that pretty much anyone tells her to do! However, when popular jock Brian who is on Hawley's foot ball team is sent over to D.J.'s family farm to learn how to really "work", things start changing. D.J starts training Brian and soon enough, they become close friends. And, things get even better when D.J comes up with the perfect plan to show herself that she really is not like a cow! However, will her plans turn out like she had hoped? Or will dig herself into a deeper hole?

"Dairy Queen" was such a great book! I loved it! It was quirky, funny, cute, and sweet! It had a lot about football in it, and I don't know much about football, but yet I still liked it! D.J and Brian's characters were well developed throughout the story, and it had a great plot! I did find that her parents, especially her Dad, were really frustrating at times. "Dairy Queen" makes a great, light, summer read. I really enjoyed reading "Dairy Queen" and am reading "Off Season", the sequel, right now! I hope that you like it as much as I did!

D.J. Schwenk is the only daughter among three brothers on a rural farm in Red Bend, Wisconsin. The whole family is obsessed with football, and D.J. is not immune. In fact, she spends her summer training Brian Nelson, the quarterback of the rival football team while tending to her family's dairy farm.

At first, D.J. and Brian are like oil and water...they don't mix well at all. However, they soon become friends as Brian challenges D.J. to speak up for herself, and D.J. challenges Brian to push himself on the football field. Eventually their friendship blossoms into a sweet romance. Of course romance is never easy, and these two are extremely tested especially when D.J. decides to try out for the Red Bend Football Team (which means she will have to play against Brian).

Dairy Queen is a very endearing and funny novel. I like the sporty aspect of the novel, but I also appreciate that it is still "true blue" young adult literature. In addition, D.J. is such an enjoyable and relatable character that you can't help but root for her to succeed. In short, Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock is a true winner! ( )

NULL

Dairy Queen is a very interesting book that tells of hard farm work, love, and discovering yourself. I enjoyed the love affair between Brian and DJ. I also liked DJ's brother, Curtis, who never talks. I found their family's chemistry to be understandable, and realistic, but not overwhelming. I also enjoyed the football parts of this book because I like football and I like how it added a twist to DJ and Brian's relationship. I didn't like the ending at all because I like to be told exactally what happens in the end, I don't like to be left guessing. ( )

After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her. ( )

Susan says: DJ Schewnk is from a screwed-up family. Her father didn't have his hip replacement in time, and that forces DJ to run the family farm in his place. Her two older football-playing brothers are off at school, having not spoken to the rest of the family since Christmas. And the coach of the rival high school football team asks DJ to help train their starting quarterback while she is running the farm. DJ's family has never talked much, especially when there is something important to talk about. So having Brian, the other team's quarterback, around, really changes things for her. And when things begin to change, they change all over - she finds out she's in love with Brian, she discovers then that her best friend is a lesbian who has always assumed that they will end up together. And most importantly, because of an offhand comment of Brian's, DJ begins to think about being a cow - being just like everyone else. And she decides to go out for her high school football team. Murdock does a great job with this book - she never downplays the sheer work of being a football player, and there is definitely more to this story than is written down. I'm going to read the sequel, and hope that there are more books about DJ and her changing family in the future. ( )

School Library Journal, Apr2006, Vol. 52 Issue 4, p145-145 ( )

The story takes place over a summer on a dairy farm, where DJ has taken over most of the farming chores due to the absence of her older brothers, the busy baseball schedule of her younger brother, the hip problems of her father and her mother's two jobs. She's wallowing in mediocrity, figuring that she'll never get out of Red Bend. Along comes Brian, a quarterback from a rival high school's football team, who needs training. His coach (a family friend of the Schwenks, DJ's family), thinks he needs work on his football skills and attitude problems. After a rough start, the two work well together, combining farm chores and football practice. But DJ decides it's time to not act like a cow, and goes out for her high school's football team.

I loved this book! First of all, I "read" the audio version and have to say that Natalie Moore does an excellent job, especially capturing the Wisconsin farmer accent, plus the whole teenage girl thing. Not a huge football fan myself, but found myself asking my husband for more details about different positions and their roles during a game to understand the plot better.

I was excited to see that there is a sequel ("The Off Season") and plan to get that next. A great middle school read! ( )