Title: Dairy Queen
Author: Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Description (from Amazon.com): “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.”
Review: You may have noticed that there is no picture included with this review. There’s a reason for this: the original cover of Dairy Queen is terrible. So terrible that it kept me from reading it for quite a while despite having read some rave reviews and getting recommendations from it for quite a while. There’s a new cover, I gather, but I haven’t actually seen it anywhere. Now, I did eventually get past my cover prejudice, and I’m so glad I did because this book was awesome, but I’d hate for anyone else to make my mistakes. So I think it’s best to limit exposure to the cover.
When we first meet high school student DJ Schwenk, she is telling us about her family having to sell her favorite dairy cow to a butcher because the cow is sick. Other facts we learn very early about DJ: she works hard, very hard, to keep her family’s dairy farm running; she loves sport, including basketball – which she had to quit to run the dairy farm – and football, the family sport; and she is funny. There’s plenty of plot to this book, but it’s really DJ’s story, and her lovableness is what makes it so wonderful. Also, I cannot recommend enough getting Dairy Queen on CD or audio. Narrator Natalie Moore reads with a SPOT-ON Northern Wisconsin accent, she’s funny, she sounds 16. With her narrating, it really is like DJ is talking to you while you listen.
And that’s really what my whole review comes down to, and the reason this review is so short. DJ is amazing, lovable, and unique. I couldn’t wait to get in my car and listen to her some more (and at the time of writing this review, I am already listening to the sequel to Dairy Queen.) There’s plenty of supporting character goodness, especially in the form of DJ’s younger brother Curtis, and plot aplenty with school troubles, dairy farm troubles, family troubles, friend troubles, and, of course, boy troubles.
But honestly, I would read (or especially listen) to a whole book of DJ telling me about boring everyday life without any of the plot, just to be hearing from her.
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