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Our booksellers are raving about Dairy Queen, Catherine Gilbert Murdock's terrific debut novel for teens. This wryly written story features the unforgettable D. J. Schwenk, a football-loving 15-year-old who takes over the chores on her family's small Wisconsin dairy farm when her dad is sidelined by an injury. Like the rest of the tongue-tied Schwenks, D.J. is not much of a talker. Then she meets Brian, a snooty quarterback assigned to her for football training, and she finally learns to speak her mind. Murdock gives D.J. a pitch-perfect teenage voice: self-effacing and endearingly confused. With its unusual setting and a story line both hilarious and touching, Dairy Queen is as promising a YA debut as any we've seen.

From the Publisher

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.

Publishers Weekly

If you ask 15-year-old tomboy D.J. Schwenk, summer is off to a lousy start. But, since she's not real big on talking and neither is anyone in her family no one's likely to hear or understand her complaints. D.J. is saddled with all the chores at the Schwenk dairy farm while her father recuperates from an injury, her mother takes on extra work at the local school and her older, football-legend brothers stay away from home due to a family rift. Then Brian Nelson, the conceited quarterback from D.J.'s rival high school, is assigned by his coach (and Schwenk family friend) to help out on the farm. Sparks of all kinds, and cow pies, fly as D.J. and Brian eventually bond over work and football, and D.J. tries out for her own school's varsity team. Moore does an excellent job of mastering a natural, Midwestern accent that whisks listeners right to Wisconsin. She's wholly believable as a teenager struggling with attitudes about first love, friendship, gender and sexuality, self-confidence and sports. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature

In the summer of her fifteenth year, D.J. carries the weight of her family farm quite literally on her back. Her father has had a hip operation and cannot do the physical work required on this small dairy farm in rural Wisconsin. Her mother is working two jobs, and her older brothers are away playing college football. D.J's younger brother is some help but is often busy with his own sports schedule. Football is in the family's blood and D. J. has spent most of her life either watching her brothers play or helping while they trained. She is big and strong and capable of handling a man's job. Jimmy, an old family friend and the coach for a local high school football team, is the only one who seems to notice that D. J. should not be doing this job alone. He sends Brian, a spoiled rich quarterback who needs some discipline in his life, to help. At first D.J. is not sure how Brian will be of any help to her. He does not have the work ethic that has been drilled into her and her brothers from the day they were born; he does not have a reason to put forth much effort; and he probably views her with contempt, as do most of the sleek, popular in-crowd. But Brian keeps coming back and D. J. begins to open up to him, sometimes talking directly to him and sometimes talking in her head, and they both discover new dimensions of their personalities. D.J. begins to question the silence that rules her family, to ask questions about their relationships, and to step out into uncharted territory. She even finishes her English work from sophomore year so she does not have to enter her junior year with an F on her transcript. She also decides to go out for the high school football team. This is not aneffort to emulate her older brothers, but an effort to do something for herself, to step out of the expected course of action, and to be her own person.

Mary E. Heslin - VOYA

She has grown up on a dairy farm, but fifteen-year-old D.J. is no ordinary milkmaid. She has played pick-up games and caught balls for her college-football-hero brothers all her life, and now with an injury sidelining her father, she is doing almost all the farm work. The dairy is the family's top priority, but it is taking a toll on D.J. She has little social life, less study time (she is flunking English), and no expectations of a brighter future. She is uncomplaining and unaware of her frustrations until Brian, the talented but out-of-condition quarterback for her high school's archrival, compares her to a cow. "You do all the work . . . It's like you're a cow . . . one day . . . they're going to . . . take you away to die and you're not even going to mind." Furious with unflinching honesty, D.J. takes the point and in contentious-but increasingly respectful-dialogue, both teens embark on a journey of self discovery during which D.J. becomes Brian's football trainer and realizes that she wants to play herself. D.J.'s voice is funny, frank, and intelligent, and her story is not easily pigeonholed. Readers will learn a lot about sports and farming but more about taking charge of oneself. The cover, featuring a crowned cow, will turn some readers off, but it is one of the wisest, richest, most poignant books this reviewer has seen all season and with pushing it will repay shelf space in any public or school collection. VOYA CODES: 5Q 3P M J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Will appeal with pushing; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2006, Houghton Mifflin, 288p., $16. Ages 11 to 18.

KLIATT

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, May 2006: Fifteen-year-old D.J. is the only daughter in a family of dairy farmers. Her older brothers are football heroes, now gone off to college. Her younger brother plays football but is profoundly silent. In D.J.'s family, emotions are not discussed. As a result, the rift between D.J.'s father and her two older brothers remains a chasm. D.J. is the one called upon to pick up the pieces for her injured father. She is a workhorse, spending her summer days shoveling manure, baling hay, and milking cows. In fact, she begins to feel as if she is a cow, doing only the expected. Enter Brian Nelson, football star of the rival high school, who spends the summer training under D.J. D.J. not only falls in love but decides she wants to play football, too, at her own high school—something no one expects. These characters are all flawed but likable. D.J., in her silence, has a lot of time to ponder who she is and what she wants. Her task over the summer is to learn to speak her mind because, as the book points out, "When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said." This is a highly readable novel with interesting characters and a valuable theme of learning to express emotions and reach out to others. (An ALA Best Book for YAs.)

School Library Journal

Gr 7-10-After her father is injured, 15-year-old D.J. Schwenk takes over the lion's share of work on her family's small Wisconsin dairy farm. Between milking cows, mucking out the barn, and mowing clover, this erstwhile jock takes on training Brian, the rival high school's quarterback. A monster crush and a tryout for her own school's football team ensue. D.J., a charming if slightly unreliable narrator, does a good deal of soul-searching while juggling her grinding work schedule, an uncommunicative family, and a best friend who turns out to be gay. Savvy readers will anticipate plot turns, but the fun is in seeing each twist through D.J.'s eyes as she struggles with whether she really is, as Brian puts it, like a cow headed unquestioningly down the cattle shoot of life. Wry narration and brisk sports scenes bolster the pacing, and D.J.'s tongue-tied nature and self-deprecating inner monologues contribute to the novel's many belly laughs. At the end, though, it is the protagonist's heart that will win readers over. Dairy Queen will appeal to girls who, like D.J., aren't "girly-girls" but just girls, learning to be comfortable in their own skins. The football angle may even hook some boys. Fans of Joan Bauer and Louise Rennison will flock to this sweet confection of a first novel, as enjoyable as any treat from the real DQ.-Amy Pickett, Ridley High School, Folsom, PA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A painfully funny novel takes readers into the head of D.J. Schwenk, frustrated dairy farmer-cum-football trainer-cum-star linebacker. D.J. comes from a football family: Her two older brothers were legends in high school; her father used to coach. But ever since her father took out his hip, the responsibility for the farm has fallen on her shoulders, causing her to quit basketball and track and to fail sophomore English. When a family friend who coaches the rival team sends her his cocky quarterback for training over the course of one grueling summer, she learns more about her own capabilities and desires than she thought possible. This sounds like any other coming-of-age novel, but D.J.'s voice is hilariously introspective, the revelation that she lives life like a cow-"I just did what my parents told me, and my coaches, and [my friend], and [my dog] even. . . . I was nothing but a cow on two legs"-guiding both D.J. and readers through her growing friendship with the obnoxious quarterback and her decision to do the unexpected: play football. A fresh teen voice, great football action and cows-this novel rocks. (Fiction. YA)First printing of 75,000

Product Details

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Dairy Queen

Houghton Mifflin

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Excerpted from Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock Copyright © 2006 by Catherine Murdock. Excerpted by permission.
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