Dairy Queen

I am in love with this book! the author accurately portraits a high school-er and all their troubles. Only they could go farther with Amber, i loved her persona

Great story-telling that is sheer entertainment. I enjoyed all of the characters.

I found Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock to be a realistic look at fifteen year old DJ Schwenk’s summer as she takes on the bulk of the work on her family’s Wisconsin Dairy Farm due to her father’s injury. With only her younger brother’s help, the work is overwhelming and her schoolwork has already suffered as she flunked English. High school football plays an important role in this small rural town and a strong rivalry with an adjacent town has built up over the years. DJ’s own family is quite involved in football as her father is a former coach and her two older brothers were stars before they left home.

Brian Nelson plays for the rival team, and although talented, he needs to be trained in focus and temperament and so his coach, who is a family friend, brings him to the Schwenk farm to work and, he hopes, to be trained by DJ. At first this appears to be a bad idea as DJ and Brian are like oil and water, but gradually over the summer, they bond and DJ develops a major crush on him.

But this is so much more than a girl/boy/football story. The story deals with many issues, in particular communicating and keeping secrets. A coming of age story about finding yourself as an individual and becoming comfortable in your own skin. Well written with a very likeable heroine, this was a very enjoyable read.