Review: Dairy Queen

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.

Thirsty for more? As I was scouring the author's website, I realized to my great excitement that this book has a sequel out now. It's called The Off Season, and it looks like it picks up not long after Dairy Queen leaves off. Also, I see that Catherine Murdock is the author of another book that's been on my TBR pile for awhile, Princess Ben.

About Catherine Murdock: People sometimes ask if I played football in high school: no. I ran cross country and track, badly, but I have absolutely no skill whatsoever with ball or team sports. Plus my high school didn’t even have a football team. Instead, I was part of the art clique – taking extra art classes, spending my study halls and lunch periods working on my latest still life. (Please tell me this was not a unique experience.) I didn’t do much writing – my sister was the anointed writer – but I read my little eyeballs out. I was the queen of our library’s YA section. (from her website. You can read more of her bio here.)

Click the book cover image to purchase from Amazon.

Second opinions:
Zia @ My Life in Not So Many Words liked it!