Dairy Queen

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Summary: D.J. lives on a midwestern dairy farm, and eats, sleeps, and breathes sports. Her two older brothers are off playing football in college, and her mom is overworked, so when her dad injures his back, most of the farm work is left to her. This causes her grades and sports to suffer. She's a known hard worker, and sort of a track star at her school, so the crosstown rival's football coach asks her to train his lazy, arrogant quarterback and teach him some discipline. Brian drives D.J. crazy, but the more time she spends with him, the more she learns about herself. Her growing crush on him doesn't stop her when she decides she wants to try out for her own high school football team, even though she knows she'll have to face him on the field. Lots of football game scenes and real sports action take this book way beyond typical chick lit.

My thoughts: DJ is such a great character because she just doesn't fit into a stereotype. She's not a girly-girl--she's a tomboy and a jock--but she does have the occasional girly moment. I like that she's just a regular girl who loves football, and who happens to be really good at playing. The sequel is called The Off Season.