Catherine Gilbert Murdock

I read this because I kept seeing it on lists like “Favorite Teen Read,” “Teen Recommended,” “ALA Best Books for Young Adults,” etc. And it also had many blurbs saying, in essence, “I loved this book.” And unsurprisingly, I loved it as well.

D.J. (for Darlene Joyce) Schwenk is 15 when the book begins, and she has taken over most of the chores at her family’s farm in Red Bend, Wisconsin, because her older brothers have left home, her mom is working two jobs, and her dad got show more injured. She has one other brother, but he’s 13, and in any event is in a summer softball league.

D.J.’s dad used to be a football coach for the rival team at Hawley High, where his best friend Jimmy Ott still does the coaching. Jimmy sends his quarterback, Brian Nelson, over to help out at the farm, but Brian thinks the work is too hard, and quits after one day. He only comes back when D.J. agrees to be his personal trainer to help him prepare for the upcoming football season.

The trouble starts, however, when D.J. decides she too wants to play football, for her home team of Red Bend, which is the main rival of Hawley. She doesn’t tell Brian though, because the Schwenk’s aren’t very good at communicating.

Sounds fairly standard, but the character of D.J. is outstanding. She considers herself “poor, stupid, and ugly and just not cool at all” but of course she is none of those things, except poor (but only in terms of money). She’s hilariously funny, smart, courageous, and full of insight about herself and others. As one example evincing all of the above, she talks about how she and her BFF Amber watch the movie “Blue Crush” over and over. She explains:

“It’s a movie about three girls who are a lot like us except they live in Hawaii and don’t have any parents and they date professional football players and surf all the time. And they’re thin. So you can see that the similarities are overwhelming.”

Evaluation: I laughed out loud often while reading this charming coming-of-age story. The author has written some follow-up books and I can’t wait to read them. show less

15-year-old DJ Schwenk is having a rough time. Her two older brothers have left home for college and never call or write. Her younger brother, Curtis, rarely speaks. Her mother is bogged down trying to work two jobs, and her demanding father has had a hip operation, and can't do the work on the family's dairy farm. That leaves DJ to run the farm - while going to high school, where she's failing English. The last thing she needs is for their great family friend, (who is the coach of her show more school's rival football team), to ask her of all people to train, Brian, one of his players, on their farm during the summer.
And then her life gets more complicated when she and Brian start to kinda-sorta like each other. Throw into the mix her own secret decision to play on her school's football team, and she's got one complicated life to figure out.
DJ is one of those teen novel protagonists who are super smart and tough as nails in some ways, while still sort of innocent and vulnerable in other ways. I absolutely loved her, and the book both! (Didn't know it was a series until I went to write this review... now I've got more to look forward to.) show less

Boy, a hunchback goatherd, is taken into service by a pilgrim in his way to Rome. The pilgrim is on a quest to recover seven relics of St. Peter, and needs Boy to help him. Along the way, the reader will learn that both travelers have their secrets...

I very much enjoyed this medieval quest tale. It's a quick read with some lovely moments and an interesting twist (I thought I knew Boy's secret after the second chapter, but as it turns out, I was quite wrong!). I'm not sure how much appeal it show more will have for kids, but it would make a good readaloud. And it's definitely the sort of book I'd recommend to adults who enjoy the occasional juvenile title. show less

Ben’s voice couldn’t be more different from [Dairy Queen heroine] DJ’s: where DJ is plainspoken and even sometimes inarticulate, Ben writes like Oscar Wilde. I was reminded of M. T. Anderson’s Octavian Nothing, written in old-fashioned language with the kind of humor that grows naturally out of such a style. It’s challenging, but entertaining enough that I think a lot of fantasy fans will push through it. (Full review at show more target="_top">http://www.parenthetical.net/2011/07/08/review-princess-ben-2008-and-wisdoms-kis... show less