Gender-bending themes, YA identity, and lots of humor. ( )

I wanted to love this book more, and for a minute I did....Maybe it was the football? I'm not much for sports fiction. Great characters though, really. ( )

Love the attitude of this fiesty character! It's fun that it's set in Wisconsin, too. Great read for any Packers fan! ( )

It was okay. I did like the football angle although the romance was slightly weak, but it is a trilogy. I did like how DJ was able to realize that some people are "stuck in their ways" and don't ever branch out or question why, but she questioned it at a young age, instead of doing what she is expected to do. ( )

Starts off a little on the slow side but now I'm hooked and I immediately borrowed the 2 other books in the series. D.J. is just a really nice, awkward, responsible kid trying to figure things out. And she has such a great voice that the poor grammar is charming and not hair-tearing-out since it's part of the style of the book and makes the story even more effective. ( )

Quick read, very good. You are totally rooting for this high school girl to make the boys football team in small town WI even before you've finished the first page. Want to read other books by this author, I think she continues this same story. ( )

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 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.) ( )

dairy queen is book that is a nice surprise. when reading the summary of the plot i was very sure that the book would not be interesting to me at all.however, when reading the book i found the plot to be extremely well done. it was a cliche story of a girl who wanted to do something other's labeled impossible because of her gender. we've all read a story of a male or female overcoming gender bias,, but to put this into the time when it was written and they way she even discovers her want for football it actually makes it way less common than originally thought.

This is a lively quirky YA novel. D.J. is a high school athlete who has had to leave the basketball team to work in the family's dairy while her father is sidelined with a hip injury. Her path from numb resentful acceptance to articulate choice is a good journey even if it does rely heavily on football. The weakness is that the problems that face her family really require more than one individual finding a voice. ( )

This novel is funny and heart-warming, and a sports novel that boys and girls can both love! DJ is a tough and determined character that you cheer on the entire novel as she faces challenges both on and off the field. ( )

Admittedly, I'm not a fan of football, so I found a lot of the play-by-play football descriptions boring. I liked D.J., the protagonist, but I found the book ineffective. ( )

I discovered this while browsing the YA section in the library one day. It was one of those moments when you have no idea what you want to read, but you know you're in the mood for something YA. It's a quick read. ( )

Growing up with a friend who lived on a dairy farm, it was definitely a cute and relatable read. It was a little sad to see homophobia shoved in there as though all farmers don't understand what "gay" means, but otherwise, it was an enjoyable read. ( )

Great book - quick read. ( )

Well, I grew up in a small town in WI and this is close enough to being authentic that I'm not terribly perturbed. But, seriously, no matter how strong (in all meanings of the word) DJ is, she cannot do all the farm chores herself and still have time to fret about all the things that teenagers need to fret about. Mom's town job clearly makes all the money that sends the boys on their adventures.

But hey, it's still an utterly (no, I'm not going there, but you can if you want) bewitching book. I absolutely love the totally original premise and characters. And I disagree with other reviewers - the cover is what grabbed me.

Now I see it's first in a series. Hm. Well, I was sad to say goodbye to the Schwenks and to Red Bend when I closed the book, so I might look for them. Otoh, the ending was satisfying, so maybe not. ( )

2.5 stars
D J is a farmer (by necessity, not choice), a basketball player, a failure at Sophomore English, and a trainer of the star quarterback of the arch-rival high school ... when she decides to try out for the football team. An interesting coming of age book. Not great, but okay for young adults. ( )

Needing a YA entry for library summer reading, I found I didn't want the realm of fae or an imaginary place where everything is as bad as it can be (dystopian) or a new twist on the vampiric.

I chose Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, a debut novel and book #1 of the Dairy Queen Trilogy.

Natalie Moore did beautifully narrating as 15-year-old D.J. Schwenk did the lion's share of work on her family's small Wisconsin dairy farm.
C Murdock and N Moore bring the summer of this loveable heroine to life.

I enjoyed my time in Red Bend, Wisconsin.

4 ★ ( )

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 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. ( )

RGG: DJ's voice totally makes this story. Family dynamics, gender identity, and "being real" make for a great story. Note: one of the character's comes out. Reading Interest: YA.

Loved this, especially DJ's voice. She is one of the most true and real characters I've encountered lately. Any time I set this down and had to go do something else I could feel it pulling me back and compelling me to finish. I look forward to the rest of the series! ( )

Over all, I would recommend this book to a friend. I believe that it's a pretty good book, but I just don't like the ending. I was a little disappointed because the whole time I was expecting it to be a romance novel and it wasn't. 3Q3P The cover art is okay and I'd recommend this to high school students. I chose to read this book because my English teacher suggested it to me, so I thought I'd give it a try. MaryH

Don't you hate when you accidentally exit out of your review and lose the whole thing! Starting again...

I first read this book about four or five years ago and when I joined Goodreads I only gave it a 3 star rating, remembering only that I had enjoyed it but not enough to make a lasting impression. I didn't realise there was more to the series until I stumbled upon the second book in a secondhand book store. Right there I decided I would find the third book also and read the series as a whole.

On my second read of Dairy Queen, my immediate thoughts of how funny and touching it managed to be, often both in the space of a sentence. I felt much more connected with DJ this time around, and her running monologue really made me feel as if I was inside her head and understanding her came easy. I was especially moved by her 'I am a cow' realisation - it is a very interesting and original way to view the girl. DJ is not the typical character found in YA Lit, something that grabbed me straight away and made me like her so much.

Hence my updated rating to 4 stars. Maybe I had to be a little older and wiser to appreciate this book, I'm not sure. A fun read, but one with a great message to young girls (and boys) - don't be a cow! ( )

This delightful YA book has all the themes that usually don't interest me: football, life on a farm, a gruff father, a child who just plods along under his stern direction - but it puts them together in a unique way that fleshes out a very satisfying coming of age story. I'm going to have to check out more of her work. ( )

RGG: DJ's voice totally makes this story. Family dynamics, gender identity, and "being real" make for a great story. Note: one of the character's comes out. Reading Interest: YA.

RGG: DJ's voice totally makes this story. Family dynamics, gender identity, and "being real" make for a great story. Note: one of the character's comes out. Reading Interest: YA.