Review: Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

paperback, 274 pages

First published April 30th, 2006

Source: Gift (YAY!)

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.

My friend Lori at Pure Imagination recently raved about this book and I added it to my wishlist.  Not long after that I started noticing it popping up everywhere and people were saying amazing things.  When it arrived as a Christmas gift from Lori (Thank you Lori!) I actually picked it up right away.  We'd had some tragedy going on around here (that mall shooting was in my neck of the woods) and I needed something funny and brainless.  Something completely non stressful.  So I picked this up.

This book has the best dialogue (internally especially) EVER.  Well, I'm sure I have read some just as good, but I'm not sure about better.  Because D.J. is one hilarious chick.  But the book isn't all about the giggles, D.J. has stuff going on, but even though she has stuff going on she keeps that internal dialogue on and keeps you giggling.  I wouldn't even say this is a fluff book as it's a coming of age story and it's got some issues in it.  But those issues don't seem to drag it down and it keeps reading more like a lighthearted read.  

There were so many things I connected with in this book.  The first thing is that D.J. lives on a dairy farm in Wisconsin.  I lived on an ostrich farm in SD, but I spent several weeks in the summer each year on a dairy farm in ND.  It was that dairy farm that I pictured the entire time.  As a matter of fact, it was even described the same way.  So I had a very clear picture in my head, even if it was ND instead of WI.  D.J. is stuck doing ALL the chores on the dairy farm and I can't even imagine how hard that was.  Her father had hurt his hip so she took over the milking (twice a day), the haying (kind of a periodic thing, but loads of work), the cleaning (the barn needs cleaned every day, at least a little) and even the mowing.  She basically did everything.  I'm the oldest of 5 kids and I know what it's like to feel like you're doing everything (both my parents worked full time) but I never actually had to do everything.  Plus feeding ostriches is much faster than milking cows.  But D.J. does it without whining.  Yeah, we know she's depressed about it, but it's not actual whining and I appreciated that.  Anyway, a football player from the opposing team is sent over to help on the farm and D.J. ends up helping him train for football and the two become unlikely friends.

D.J.'s also dealing with family problems and I liked that this was such an important part of the story, especially her father being injured and stuck in the house.  He was a very well developed character and was very easy for me to imagine.  Actually all the characters were incredibly well developed and it made the story so much better for it.  And family isn't always so important in YA books, and I think it should be, so I loved that it was important in this one.

I picked out a quote to share with you guys (I know, I never do this!), but I absolutely loved it.  I'm not sure if it'll have the full impact without reading the whole thing, but it's pretty spoiler free.

Bright green grass three inches high, lines sharp as ruler, corner flags fluttering away... pretty as a postcard. Except for the yearling pooping right there on the thirty-yard line.
"Norm, you moron!" I yelled. "Get off the field!"
Of course Brian cracked up, which I guess he had every right to do because I was laughing too, and then he gave the heifers a long lecture on where they could poop and where they couldn't. It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, Brian standing there waving his finger like he was some kind of professor and all the heifers eyeing him, flicking the flies off their ears, like they were really paying attention. Until they pooped.

Pg. 106 & 108

Here's another one, I just can't resist.
This is after her father clomps down to the barn to ask if he should put walnuts in the brownies.

Brian looked so confused that I had to explain. "He got in a fight at church with some old lady and so now he's trying to prove that my mom makes better brownies."
"Does she?"
"No, she never makes them! So Dad's going to do it and say she did it because he doesn't want anyone to think a guy bakes."
Brian laughed. "They might be okay."
"Have you ever tasted my dad's cooking?"
"Maybe he'll add some of that Texas barbecue sauce, give them a little zip."
We both laughed at that.

pg. 104 & 105

One thing I mentioned was that it was easy to imagine the farm she lived on, but it really was a major connection for me.  The time I spent on the dairy farm as a kid was a really special time for me.  We helped with the milking, we fed the baby calves, we played in the cow fields, we helped hay.  All this stuff that D.J. does, I did.  And it was amazing.  There was one point they were playing football in the field and all the cows kind of crowded around like the show was being put on for them and that's how it is!  I remember actually putting on shows for the cows though! Yep, those dairy cows have a special place in my heart.  So that was just an extra bonus for me.

I very highly recommend this book!  It's so much fun but has it's deeper moments as well.  And while it has a touch of romance, it's not something that has gotten too far yet, and I liked that.  The two have worked at developing a friendship first, which is nice.  And there's no love triangle either.

Yep, you gotta read it!