.jpg)
No, this isn't about soft-serve ice cream, blizzards and steak finger baskets! However, if you understand small town livin', then D.J. Schwenk will be a character that you will immediately fall in love with! I really think Dairy Queen is the cutest book I've read in quite sometime, not because it is well-written, humorous, and sweet, but because the setting reminds me so much of home! Granted, I didn't grow up on a dairy farm, but I certainly understand what it is like to be in charge of cleaning up poop, (hello, I showed pigs for FFA!), and dealing with family members that aren't all there. (No offense mom, or my sisters...you're not the weird ones.)
Read this review from Publisher's Weekly if you are interested in another great read:
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.
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.
By the way, I do plan on reading books that aren't of the teen genre this summer, but I promise myself, that during the school year, I read what my students might like to read. You would be surprised how many books are now on my all-time favorites list because of this little promise I made. (Um, hello, Twilight!)
No comments:
Post a Comment