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Jan 20, 2012

Emily rated it:

When I finally found a spare two minutes to sit down and start reading this book, I suddenly ended up drawn in for a couple of hours discovering that Dairy Queen is just as ridiculously funny, silly, and heartwarming as everyone had told me it was. And strangely inspirational too - I love anyone who dares to break the mold, especially young females who challenge gender stereotypes and go their own way.

I will admit that I am not the biggest fan of chick lit novels, so I should More...

6 comments like (15 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

Maja rated it:

I never thought I’d have fun reading about a belching contest of all things, but that’s exactly what happened. Murdock’s Dairy Queen is just the kind of YA I can truly enjoy: loads of fun on the surface, yet if you remember to look a little deeper, for the most part it’s not funny at all.

I noticed a long time ago that authors often have problems with creating characters that are quite average. On one side, most of them don’t even want to because they’re convinced that nobody likes to More...

11 comments like (21 people liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Megan rated it:

Dairy Queen has got to be the best book hidden behind the worst cover/title ever. This isn’t a book I would have given a second glance at if it weren’t for so many Goodreads friends raving over it. Even looking past the cover, the synopsis here doesn’t sound great. One special summer in which our young protagonist, D.J. Schwenk spends time with a guy who is “out of her league”, figures out some family issues and goes out for the boys football team? This has the potential to be quirky in an oh-so More...

6 comments like (16 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Lisa O. rated it:

....why couldn't Murdock just continue to write YA instead of delving into middle grade? Sorry, Ms. Murdock, I am not saying Wisdom's Kiss was bad but this is SO much better. Actually it was pretty great, as soon as I finished it I went online to order the other two books in the series.

All because of DJ.
DJ Schwenk is no Barbie doll. She is tall, big, strong and runs her family's farm. Despite being in high school, she is overwhelmed by the daily chores required for the normal More...

4 comments like (14 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2011

Flannery rated it:

DJ Schwenk is a teenage girl growing up on a dairy farm in rural Wisconsin. Her family suffers from a lack of communication and the departure of her two older brothers, along with her father's hip surgery, have put even more strain on DJ. Her workload at school is overwhelming when she adds in all the work she has to do to keep the family farm running. Dairy Queen chronicles a few weeks of her summer vacation...if you can call it a vacation.

If you have to listen to professors talk abo More...

11 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jun 07, 2010

Tatiana rated it:

After being burned MANY times by crap YA books, I made a decision to only read those that at some point earned critical recognition (if I judged books by GR reviewer's ratings, I suspect I would have to work my way through nonsense like Hush, Hush, Evermore, and The Luxe and I am not sure I am up for it any more). Dairy Queen made it to ALA's list of best YA books in 2007, so I decided to give it a try in spite of the awful cover and title. I was not disappointed.

15-year-old D.J. is More...

5 comments like (21 people liked it)

Feb 27, 2011

Kristi (The Story Siren) added it

I had heard nothing but good reviews for this book, so I went in expecting a lot and I wasn’t disappointed. Besides I am a little bit of a farm girl myself, so I totally related to D.J. I could barely read about bailing and unloading hay without my skin itching!! The only time I was truly happy to get up before four in the morning was to feed my cute little feeder calf, and the fact that I could go back to sleep afterward helped too.

Dairy Queen is the story of D.J. Schwenk. And let m More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 28, 2011

oliviasbooks rated it:

Heart- and gut-wrenchingly good. I just ordered the sequel although still have 14 new books waiting to be read. The plot: Tomboy D.J. Schwenks is 15 going on 16, lives on a dairy farm and does almost all the hard work. In fact she is even flunking grades in order to get the barn clean and the cows milked and fed. Her father has an injured hip, started doing housework instead of farm work and just loves to complain about his daughter's working style. D.J.'s real passion is American football, bu More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 15, 2008

CLM rated it:

I really enjoyed this YA novel set on a Wisconsin dairy farm about a girl who had to drop off her high school basketball team to milk and care for the family's herd when her father needs a hip replacement. Already shy and unsure of herself, DJ begins to recognize her family never talks about anything that matters, and in fact, barely speaks at all. A particularly taboo topic is her two star college football player brothers who have not been home since Christmas.

When DJ is asked to More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 16, 2011

Vinaya rated it:

Back in the good old days when Net Galley was a bountiful god instead of the clutch-fisted miser it is becoming, I used to go wild requesting every galley I could find. One of the books I requested was a novel about a girl who plays baseball on a boy's team. I never did read more than fifty pages of that one - it was pretty dry, but it did make me a little apprehensive about reading sports-related stories. Which is weird because I LOVE sports-related movies. I couldn't tell you the rules of Amer More...

6 comments like (20 people liked it)

Feb 12, 2009

Emily rated it:

I have a new appreciation for football reading this book.
I've found football sorta sexist... I mean, have you EVER seen a woman in the NFL? Exactly. Its like, one of the only sports that there's really not a Woman's league. I mean, all women can do in this sport is cheer the men on from the sidelines in little outfits and pom-poms... I'm sorry, but that's just sad...
I seriously think they need a Woman's League and on the guys cheer on the girls with pom-poms and their shirts off... More...

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2009

Jaemi rated it:

I read this book while on vacation in Vermont, which seemed really appropriate, even if the book was set in Wisconsin.

D.J., at 15, doesn’t have the world’s most pleasant life. Her two older brother’s have left the house, after a fight with their dad, and dad’s got a bum leg, so it’s up to D.J. to run the farm. She gets occasional help from her younger brother, but he’s big into sports, which come first. And just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, the rival football team QB shows More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 14, 2011

Jessica rated it:

I’ve been home sick for two days the other week and during that time I read all three books of this series back to back and whenever I’m doing something like this I find it hard to come up a with a review for each single book since everything kind of blurs together and I’m having trouble distinguishing the different books in my head, so I’m just going to do one review for all three books and keep it general.

D.J. is one of those protagonists you just gotta love! She’s so likeable and More...

13 comments like (10 people liked it)

Dec 18, 2011

Chachic rated it:

Originally posted here.

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock is a book that comes highly recommended by my friend Michelle of See Michelle Read. I've been reading one fantasy novel after another the past few days so I decided to pick up a contemporary one for some variety. I've wanted to read this for some time but it wasn't available in the major bookstores here in the metro. Good thing I was able to grab a copy from Book Sale, a used bookstore, for just P20 (less than half a US More...

9 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 20, 2008

Alexa rated it:

Fifteen-year-old D.J. Schwenk wants more than anything not to be a cow. Cows just "go along doing what they're supposed to do without complaining or even really noticing, until they die." And if anyone should know about cows, it's D.J. Schwenk. D.J. has pretty much been running her family's Wisconsin farm for the past six months. Her father has a back injury, her mother works full-time as a teacher/temporary principal, her two older brothers are away playing football at college, and he More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2007

Eli rated it:

Dairy Queen - a chick book? jock book? chock book.

In my quest to read as much as possible over my extended break, this is book one. As this is my first day off, I'm doing pretty well. At this rate, I can read 240 books by August 14th.

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock is the story of DJ Schwenk, a small town farm girl. I'm not sure if this is a book for girls or a book for boys, so I guess that makes it a book for everyone.

It is the kind of book tha More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2008

Sarah rated it:

I absolutely loved this book. DJ is a completely unique, strong, vulnerable character with a distinct voice. The secondary characters, particularly her brother and her father, are so well done. I thought the book was going to be about football--kind of an "issue" book, but it was really about family, and about DJ learning to value who she is.

Recently I've met a lot of booksellers and librarians, and whenever I bring up this book we have a love fest talking about it. Jus More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2011

Remy rated it:

This book is one of the few which started off with such a slow speed, and the narrator telling us everything, that I felt ready to give it up. Boy oh boy would I regret it! The starting is so painfully slow that I’m ready to bang my head on a brick wall. And to top it all off, the narrator tells us so much at the start that I feel like I’m having a brain overload. But this is now one of my favourites books in the world.

FULL REVIEW HERE:
http://justremy.blogspot.com/2011/08/dai... More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 15, 2008

Anna rated it:

I freaking loved this book.
When I first heard about it, I kinda shyed away from it, because it dealt with football. Don't get me wrong, I love the Steelers, but football isn't my favorite subject, especially to read about.

But I loved this book.
I love the way D.J. is just a random girl, a farm girl for that matter, that decides to try out for the boys football team, and is amazing at it. I love how I learned a lot about football & farming from this book.

It's a More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 24, 2009

Denae rated it:

I wasn't sure if I'd like it. I don't usually, when there'sn't a 'bad guy' to defeat.
Loved the ending, mostly. (Great begginning, too, for that matter). Not too perfect, but resolved everything nicely. I thought Brian went from "jerk" to "nice" a little fast, but that was all right. I also liked how DJ didn't over explain things, only mentioning them when it was necessary. She also didn't spend too much time complaining or wallowing in self-pity. Oh, she spent he More...

0 comments like

Mar 13, 2009

Barky rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Feb 20, 2009

Sam rated it:

Fifteen year old DJ Scwenk comes from comes from a long line of football greats including all three of her brothers. Unfortunately, that leaves DJ as the sole person to take care of her family's dairy farm since her father's many football injuries have left him fairly incapacitated. DJ knows what she's talking about when it comes to football, and she is enlisted by the coach for her town's rival (a long time family friend) to teach his quarterback a few things over the summer. DJ reluctantly han More...

0 comments like

Jan 16, 2012

Alicia rated it:

Small disclaimer, I get this book mixed up with the other ones in this series. Some events may be part of books 2 and 3.

DJ Schwenk and I have pretty much nothing in common. She is lousy by academic standards but a terrific and dedicated athlete, and lives and works on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. I was a great student (and occasional grammar nazi), have lived in cities and suburbs all my life, and am a pretty terrible athlete. She is very steady and doesn't talk much, while I'm a b More...

0 comments like

Dec 01, 2011

Emma rated it:

Dairy Queen is the story of farm girl D.J Schwenk who spent her life milking cows and knows more about running her family’s farm then the first thing when it comes to guys. When a rival football team coach, Jimmy Ott forces spoiled, smart quarterback Brian Nelson to spend time helping out and working on the Schwenk farm D.J upon his arrival decides to reject his friendship. On the first day the hard farm work breaks Brian’s tough shell and he bails after refusing to help and complaining the enti More...

0 comments like

Nov 18, 2011

Rhianna rated it:

Dairy Queen is a realistic fiction novel about relationships between people and their family, friends, rivals, and sports. In this football and romance story, D.J. Schwenk is a 15-year-old girl growing up running her family farm in Red Bend, Wisconsin while also attending her local high school. As D.J. struggles to find her place in the world, her family struggles to communicate with each other, and there is more to her relationship with her best friend Amber than D.J. realizes. Then a family More...

3 comments like

Nov 03, 2011

Yakety rated it:

Let’s start with a wee summary of the book, shall we?

IN A NUTSHELL:
D.J. Schwenk is number 3 of 4 kids that have grown up on the Schwenk farm in Red Bend, Wisconsin. Her older brothers Win and Bill, having left as small-town football legends, are off at college. So, when D.J.’s dad is injured, the main load of caring for all the jobs necessary on a dairy farm fall on D.J. and her younger, not-so-talkative brother, Curtis.

According to D.J., the Schwenks (including her) are More...

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Oct 03, 2011

Carolyn rated it:

I must admit that the title was not what caught me on this one as much as the cow on the front. In the mood for something light and funny, this fit the bill. Although it does have serious undertones (family relationship and communication, lesbianism, and fear of expressing one's individuality), they are all packed in nicely with the humor that the main character DJ Schwenk stirs up throughout the book. Not seeing herself as attractive or worthy of notice, DJ has the weight of her family on he More...

0 comments like

Oct 03, 2011

Leah is currently reading it

We are reading Dairy Queen as a read outloud in Mrs. Krahn's class, my opinon of the book is that it's okay. I don't like the streotypicalness in the story about "Farm Girls, Jocks, cool kids, and all that jazz," but the good thing about it is that well it relates to the real world all Junior High's or High School have different stereotypes.
I like how her friend Amber sort of doesn't really help. I think it's cool how Dj has two good friends. Amber who just makes a joke out More...

0 comments like

Aug 26, 2011

Laura rated it:

This was a hard review for me. I wanted to do D.J. justice somehow and explain how much I loved her voice. Try to get across how much this book surprised and moved me. I’m not even going to come close though, but here it goes…

I will never look at a cow the same way again after reading Dairy Queen! :) On my commute in this morning, I was looking around at all my fellow workers and commuters and I suddenly felt like a cow. Herded into the city and then out of the city during rush More...

6 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 10, 2011

David rated it:

"Dairy Queen" is a clever romantic comedy and coming of age story. Told in the first person by a tough tomboy - D.J. - whose football crazed family she is convinced is dysfunctional because they never talk. As her friend Brian says,"When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said."

Because her father is in the midst of a hip operation, and her older brothers are at college on football scholarships, 16 year-old D.J. is doing all the heavy lif More...

0 comments like