The Off Season

Natalie Moore is the voice of D.J. Schwenk in this sequel to DAIRY QUEEN. D.J.'s family eats, sleeps, and breathes football. Two brothers play college football, Bill at Minnesota and Win at Washington; youngest brother Curtis is on the eighth-grade team, and eleventh-grader D.J. has achieved her dream--starting as the first girl linebacker in the state of Wisconsin. Add to that a blossoming relationship with the hunky quarterback on the team of Red Bend High School's biggest rival, and life is good. Moore delivers the goods, bringing D.J. alive with just a hint of a Midwestern accent and all the enthusiasm of a teenage girl who is in love with life. N.E.M. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

April 30, 2007
this sequel picks up where last year’s Dairy Queen left off, with heroine D.J. Schwenk now starting for the Red Bend High School football team. In a preseason scrimmage versus archrival Hawley, she becomes the first female linebacker in Wisconsin to score a touchdown, crossing the goal line with a ball intercepted off romantic interest Brian Nelson. Unfortunately, things go decidedly downhill after that, as three members of the Schwenk clan wind up with serious injuries during the fall football season. The most critical of these happens to D.J.’s older brother, Win, who suffers a grave injury to his spine during a televised football game at his college. Because her mother’s back is out and her farmer father is emotionally unable to leave his cows, D.J. must take time off from school again (last year, it was her father’s broken hip) to help with her brother’s rehab, putting her hopes of an athletic scholarship in jeopardy. The fact that this burden falls to D.J. a second time feels a bit contrived and also makes her somewhat of a doormat—why is it always D.J. who must forgo school and sports to care for ailing family members? That said, fans of the first book will again find D.J. a companionable narrator, wryly pondering her relationship with Brian, as well as her obligations to her family and—most importantly—to herself. Ages 12-up.

September 1, 2007
Gr 7-10 -Female linebacker D.J. Schwenk is back in Catherine Gilbert Murdock's delightful sequel (Houghton Mifflin, 2007) toDairy Queen (Houghton Mifflin, 2006; Listening Library, 2006). D.J. is in the 11th grade and an appreciated member of the Red Bend High School football team. She's dating (sort of) Brian Nelson from a rival town's team. Everything changes when the teenager suffers a shoulder injury and her sports career is threatened. Weird things are happening with Brian, too. He wants to keep their relationship a secret and seems embarrassed to be seen with her. D J.'s life takes an unexpected turn when her brother has to deal with a spinal-cord injury incurred during a football game, and she must have the tenacity to encourage his recovery. Narrator Natalie Moore provides just the right voice for D J. to project her humor and warmth. Listeners will relate to these appealing characters and the slice-of-life plot reminiscent of novels by Sharon Creech and Joan Bauer. Hopefully, we haven't heard the last from D.J.Tricia Melgaard, Centennial Middle School, Broken Arrow, OK

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.