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    The Off Season: Dairy Queen Trilogy
    Unavailable
    The Off Season: Dairy Queen Trilogy
    Unavailable
    The Off Season: Dairy Queen Trilogy
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Off Season: Dairy Queen Trilogy

    Written by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

    Narrated by Natalie Moore

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Life is looking up for D.J. Schwenk. She’s in eleventh grade, finally. After a rocky summer, she’s reconnecting in a big way with her best friend, Amber. She’s got kind of a thing going with Brian Nelson, who’s cute and popular and smart but seems to like her anyway. And then there’s the fact she’s starting for the Red Bend High School football team–the first girl linebacker in northern Wisconsin, probably.

    Which just shows you can’t predict the future. When something tragic happens, a season that once looked so promising, is suddenly thrown way off course and D.J. realizes her life will never be the same.

    This hilarious, heartbreaking and triumphant sequel to the critically acclaimed Dairy Queen takes D.J. and all the Schwenks from Labor Day to a Thanksgiving football game that you will never forget.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 22, 2007
    ISBN9780739355824
    Unavailable
    The Off Season: Dairy Queen Trilogy
    Author

    Catherine Gilbert Murdock

    Catherine Gilbert Murdock is the acclaimed author of the Newbery Honor Book The Book of Boy, as well as six other novels. She grew up in Connecticut and now lives in Philadelphia with her husband and two children.

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    Reviews for The Off Season

    4/5

    308 ratings33 reviews

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    • 4/5
      DJ is now a linebacker on the boys' football team, and is seeing Brian, the quarterback of a rival team. Her life is turned upside down by that relationship, and her best friend leaving. Then she learns what upside down can really be when her brother is injured in a college game.
    • 4/5
      Audiobook narrated by Natalie Moore. The likable D.J. returns in this sequel to "Dairy Queen." She may describe her family as not the type to communicate much with each other but the book portrays well the warmth and closeness of the family as they rally around the injured Wyn. I liked how the narrator leaned into a Midwestern accent for this; it gave an extra dimension to the story.
    • 4/5
      Book on CD performed Natalie Moore
      4****

      Things are looking up for D.J. Schwenk (who first appeared in Murdock’s Dairy Queen). She’s doing well in her junior year of high school, playing on the boy’s football team, and looking forward to a great season of basketball. Her relationship with Brian Nelson, quarterback on the rival high school’s football team, seems to be warming up as well. But there’s trouble on the horizon and D J will have to dig deep to find the strength to manage everything that’s thrown at her.

      This is a great YA book (named a 2007 Best Book for Young Adults). The characters act appropriately for their age and maturity, and the plot twists are believable and possible. We may not all live on a dairy farm in north central Wisconsin, but we can all relate to the trials and tribulations of school, friends, and family life. Natalie Moore does a wonderful job performing the book. Her interpretation of the characters makes them completely believable, and her pacing is perfect. I love D J and will definitely read the third installment of her story, Front and Center.
    • 4/5


      The book was really good. I liked the first book better. It is an interesting and different book, but I liked it!
    • 4/5
      This is Book Two of “The Dairy Queen” series about D.J. (for Darlene Joyce) Schwenk, 16 now, who is six feet tall, athletic, funny, and the charming narrator of this trilogy about her “coming of age” in Red Bend, Wisconsin. When D.J. isn’t doing chores on her family’s dairy farm, she is playing football or basketball on her high school team. She is also “crazy in love” with Brian Nelson, the quarterback of Red Bend’s main rival, Hawley.In this book, D.J. gets injured during a football game, and has to decide whether to drop football, which she loves. But her shoulder injury is nothing compared to what happens to her older brother Win, who plays football for the University of Washington. On a televised game the whole family was watching, he sustained a severe injury to his spinal cord. D.J.’s mother threw her back out, and her father had to take care of the dairy cows, so it was up to D.J. to go to the hospital at U. of Washington and tend to Win.Win was full of anger about his injury - “a C5 incomplete” - not talking to anyone, and not trying to help with is own recovery. D.J. is hurt by his rejection and doesn’t know what to do to help him. Moreover, she figured out that Brian was embarrassed by her, and that’s why he never would be seen in public with her.But the Schwenks are nothing if not survivors, and in this inspiring book, they all figure out how to play the cards they were dealt.
    • 4/5
      I am so glad there was a sequel for Dairy Queen. I mean, it worked fine as a stand-alone novel, but I wasn't quite ready to let go of DJ Shwenk and her family and friends.As a sequel, The Off Season didn't disappoint. It moved me as Dairy Queen did - made me laugh and made me cry. Again, I was transported to the inner workings of DJ's mind, even if she didn't know where her thoughts were leading half the time, all it did was add to her character complexity and most of all, her character development (which does not occur enough in YA fiction!). It was never annoying. You had to be in her mind to understand her life.I want to give away so many spoilers but I will restrain myself! Just be assured, if you loved or even just liked Dairy Queen you'll be very glad to get your hands on this next installment, especially as it picks up more or less exactly where the previous book left off. I feel pretty confident in saying you won't be disappointed. Well, you might be a bit disappointed in one particular character and his particular choices, and you might feel your heart break right along with DJ, but a part of you will say you saw it coming all along. Anyway, that's enough out of me!  
    • 2/5
      Deals with issues that D.J. runs into as her life changes. Might be good book to bring up topic of dealing with bad sports injuries.
    • 4/5
      I am in love with the character of DJ! As a high school teacher, feel like these books really capture the teenage spirit. DJ faces real teenage problems and deals with them on an appropriate level. I can't wait to tell my students about this series!
    • 4/5
      The Off Season differs quite a bit from Dairy Queen. Where in Dairy Queen, the focus is all on DJ, she is, in some ways, not the central character in The Off Season, playing a more supportive role: sister and daughter. Though I think I was perhaps a bit less interested in the plot of The Off Season than in Dairy Queen or Front Center, which I've already started, I'm also hugely impressed by the content and daring in the subject matter.Murdock takes some risks with the second book in the series, no question. Right at the very beginning, after the first book in the series was all about D.J. managing to join the boys' football team, she quits. She has reasons, good ones, but it's still anticlimactic after all the build up. However, it's such a mature choice, because, if she didn't stop playing, a minor injury might become a bigger deal and prevent her from playing basketball, which is pretty much her only shot at a scholarship and college. Though it's sad to see her give up on her football, seeing D.J. be so mature and face up so bravely to the judgment of her classmates is inspiring.The real story here, though, isn't about D.J., though she's central to it and crucial to the way things unfold. Her oldest brother, Win, is injured in a football game, one the whole family was watching live. Injuries happen in football all the time, but this one is life-changing: Win's spinal cord snapped. He will never walk again, and that's just one thing among many that he'll never be able to do again. His dreams have been crushed, and he had a real shot at pro ball. Even with intense physical therapy, he'll probably not regain much use of his body. The Off Season is about Win's injury and the way the Schwenk family pulls together to help him.D.J. basically puts her whole life on hold to help Win, because no one else in her family can take the time off, since her mother badly injured her back, her father needed to help his wife, her other older brother has football and college, and her younger brother is in middle school. That is so much pressure to put on one teen girl. Win, unsurprisingly, does not take the injury well. D.J. doesn't know what to do with her taciturn brother, but she turns out to be just the right person to help him, with her slow, quiet, determined Schwenk ways. There is so, so much strength in D.J., and she just does not see it yet, but I'm getting ahead of myself since that's what book three is obviously going to be about. Anyway, Murdock tackles Win's injury in this really powerful, emotional way, and goes into a lot of details about the hospital and physical therapy, and that is just so unique in YA fiction.The romance remains on the back burner, and goes pretty much exactly where I predicted. Brian Nelson's a great guy in some respects, but much to caught up in the expectations of others. Basically, D.J. did not need all of that crap to deal with while she was trying to get her brother back on his feet. That's life, though, isn't it. In fact, that's what's so great about this series: how real D.J. feels and the whole cast.I'm continuing to be really impressed with Murdock's Dairy Queen series. The audiobooks are fabulous, accent and all, and I'm already about a quarter of the way through the final book, which I both do and do not want to finish, because I already think it will be my favorite.
    • 4/5
      Did not rate as high as the first one because well, when is the sequel as good? But it didn't drop off that much, actually was just a continuing the the 1st book. Well done and can't wait to read more.
    • 4/5
      This was a bargain book from Borders that I was lucky enough to snag from someone else!! I haven't read Dairy Queen, but this little book was super cute. I thought the author did a better job than most of writing from a teenager's perspective.
    • 4/5
      This is the most depressing book ever. But somehow, it's still good, and I still read it all in one sitting.One of the reasons I like it so much is that, as an athlete, I understand lots of the stuff D.J. goes through with unjuries and physical therapy. While my athletic injuries aren't nearly so serious, I can relate to her situation, and yet the story encourages me too, so I don't feel too miserable after finishing a chapter.Somehow Catherine Gilbert Murdock pulls it all in to a bit more hopeful ending so you aren't left feeling depressed and suicidal, but I still don't expect to ever reread The Off Season.
    • 4/5
      I love DJ Schwenk. I love that she is realistic, she isn't perfect, and a lot of the time, she has no idea what to say. This book picks up where Dairy Queen left off--DJ is playing football on her high school's team, sort of seeing the rival team's quarterback, and trying to keep her family's farm going. In the first book, I became comfortable with DJ, her family, and the entire cast of secondary characters. They actually feel like actual people and it was delightful to see the continuation of their story and the growth of each individual character.Catherine Gilbert Murdock really threw me through a loop when she threw so much on DJ's table in this book. The best part of this series, obviously in my opinion, is that DJ doesn't just wallow in depression when hard things happen in her life. She deals with it. She deals with life. And that quality is contrary to a lot of YA literature out there in which the main character cannot get over their parent's divorce or moving to a new town or having no friends.As one of four kids, I really appreciate reading books where family dynamics seem realistic--especially those between siblings. I'm trying to figure out what it is about this series that just makes me happy and I think it's just that the entire Schwenk family and their town are good, hardworking people. I kind of hate when people refer to "small-town America" and that value system but, in the case of this book, it kind of applies. I like the idea of a community rallying behind a family and of farmers helping each other when trouble arises. Now, I know this can happen in the suburbs (or even in urban areas) but it just feels so much more...likely in a small town.I was ecstatic when DJ came into herself near the end of this one.*I listened to this an an audiobook. The same person narrates the entire series which is awesome. She does a fantastic job. Especially with the Bob the Duck voice:) "Hey baby, check out this winnngspan."
    • 5/5
      This book is absolutely amazing! I fell in love with it the moment i picked it up. This is a fast pace book and D.J., the main character, is absolutely inspiring. She shows so much courage and smart, because of how she deals with Brian and that situation in the book. That part was inspiring to me. I would recommend this book to teenage girls.The Schwenk family is all about hard work and their farm. D.J. is playing football for the high school football team, even though she is a girl. She has worked hard for her position and has even trained the rival team's QB the past summer because he was sent to her families farm to develop a work ethic. During that time on the farm and spent with D.J., Brian, the rival QB, starts to develop a liking for D.J. and she develops a liking for him. In D.J.'s mind, everything is going just perfect, until everything just seems to stop going her way. She gets injured, her family is going through some hard times, her relationship with Brian goes downhill, and her best friend moves away. After some difficult times, though, D.J.'s life starts to become normal, whatever the new normal is for her family and she ends up liking the change.
    • 4/5
       I was disappointed to find it wasn't quite as good as the first one, though books rarely are. This book, though good was also disappointing and I had to force myself to finish it.
    • 4/5
      I know this book isn't new, but it sat on my shelf for a while, not because I didn't want to read it, but because I knew I could count on it to be good, and I was holding out for reading it when I needed a book I could count on. This is the sequel to Dairy Queen, and I think it's even better. This book contains lots of meat; peoples reactions to her best friend Amber's sexual orientation, DJ's fierce attraction to Brian Nelson and his hot and cold responses to her, the financial difficulties she learns her parents are facing about the farm, the trouble that her brother Curtis seems to be getting into just when she's in charge and her parents are not around, and the frightening, potentially career ending football injury that lands her brother, Win, in the hospital. DJ is a believable, honest, strong female and I thoroughly enjoyed reading her take on events as they unfolded around her. My only small regret is that I can't seem to get my readers interested in either book. For some reason, the cover or the title just does not attract them. I think it looks too old fashioned perhaps.
    • 4/5
      DJ is now a linebacker on the boys' football team, and is seeing Brian, the quarterback of a rival team. Her life is turned upside down by that relationship, and her best friend leaving. Then she learns what upside down can really be when her brother is injured in a college game.
    • 2/5
      The sequel to Dairy Queen in which through a series of accidents and down right back luck, DJ is no longer playing football but has to help her family when tragedy strikes. This book wasn't as good as the first one, even though you learn more about the Schwenk family and their relisency throughout life. I liked all the issues that were addressed and the fact that DJ got a bigger taste of the world, but I missed the fresh narrator style from the first book. Still it was pretty good. I really wanted to only give this book 3.5 stars, but since it won't let you do that, I'll give it four.
    • 5/5
      The year is good. D. J.'s friendship with Amber is great, and with Amber's girlfriend Dale. And Brian is her boyfriend, kind of. Brian is awesome when they are alone or at the farm, but out in public, he get a "What is the world is SHE doing here?" look. Why? D.J. has a lot of time to figure it out when her brother Win gets a spinal cord injury from football and she stays at the hospital with him. I so loved The Off Season! I thought it was a lot better than Dairy Queen, probably just because I liked the story line better. I definately recommed this book to anyone!
    • 5/5
      This was a little different from the first book but I still loved it. Different because DJ spends a lot of time with her brother in the hospital. She still has plenty of deep thoughts and shows her strength throughout the book. I definately think that her family would be lost without her. I could understand her taking over the farm work in the first book more than I could understand her being the sole person at the hospital with Win. I understand that her mother was in no shape, but I thought her dad gave in too easily. Loved the book and can't wait for the third one. I want to see if Brian ever gets a backbone and if DJ finally gets to have some fun.
    • 4/5
      I was delighted to be back with DJ again, she is as wonderful as ever. This sequel was full of disaster, but through it all DJ was true to herself, and her observations filled with honesty and hilarity, no matter how dire the circumstances. Again a great sports story, a great relationship story, a great family story. I'd give this to anyone I catch standing still. Oh, and this cover is so much better than the cow on the first one!
    • 4/5
      I read and reviewed the previous book in this series, Dairy Queen, not long ago, and I wasn't a wholehearted fan. However, enough people recommended that I continue with the series that I took their advice. I am SO happy I did, because I absolutely loved The Off Season!DJ, with her down-home, farmgirl sensibilities, is delightful. Even though I was never a big sports girl, I love that DJ is strong and athletic and that she's proud of it. DJ feels like a real person, and she has this deadpan way of speaking that cracks me up. A favorite quote (just so you'll get it, Doing Something Stupid is what gets you pregnant): "...and while I hadn't Done Anything Stupid, I wasn't sure where exactly I stood on the whole subject. I mean, it's not that I wanted to do anything Really Stupid, but I wouldn't be so against doing something Kind of Stupid- something A Little Silly, maybe."I felt like The Off Season had a lot more substance to it than Dairy Queen. This is due largely to an accident that befalls one of DJ's family members. As the family starts to deal with the changes that have befallen them, they all start to grow up a little, and actually deal with what's happening, even if they can't talk to each other. It's a Schwenk thing. This story really dealt with a lot, while still being light-hearted overall and maintaining a PG rating. So, good characters, strong writing, entertaining plot.... definitely recommended.
    • 3/5
      The Off Season continues the story of 16-year-old D.J. Schwenk. People in her small community have accepted her decision to play on the high school football, mostly because she is a great player, and Brian Nelson, the rival high school quarterback from Holly, is talking to her again. Things seem to be going well for D.J. until she has an injury that forces her to choose between playing football and basketball. Then, when she thinks that her life can't get any harder for her or her family, D.J. has to cope with an accident that changes everything. Overall, this book is good; at times, I found myself slightly annoyed with D.J.'s narration but liked the fact that she doesn't put up with Brian's lame attempts to be her boyfriend when it's convenient for him.
    • 5/5
      D.J. Schwenk is a junior in high school in rural Red Bend, Wisconsin. Her family has two passions: dairy farming (which is out of necessity) and football (their true delight). D.J.’s older brothers and father were all football stars, and now D.J. herself is playing linebacker for the high school football team. Her life seems to be going well especially when she becomes close with the quarterback of the rival football team, Brian Nelson. However, situations change and D.J. worries when her parents struggle with making ends meet, Brian ignores her around his friends, and her best friend moves away. Still none of that compares to the heartbreak of seeing her older brother, Win, become paralyzed because of a football injury. Soon D.J. becomes the main caretaker of her brother while he goes through rehabilitation, and she learns how to become a stronger person with deeper perspective.The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock is a sequel to Dairy Queen. Dairy Queen introduces readers to the appealing Schwenk family and D.J. and Brian’s relationship. While it would be helpful to read Dairy Queen first, it is not necessary to enjoy The Off Season. Furthermore, although The Off Season deals with heavy subject matter, there is humor and joy sprinkled throughout the novel.
    • 4/5
      coming of age, farm life, country life, football, basketball, family responsibility, friendship, romance, female athletes, relationship study, first person narrator, authentic voice, football injury, dealing with illness, tween fiction, ya fiction, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, limited audience, Teen Book Festival
    • 4/5
      A great follow-up. Does not disappoint. Great characters, compelling story. Can't wait for the third installment.
    • 4/5
      I love this series about a tough farmgirl who plays on the boys' football team. DJ isn't in touch with her emotions, but is forced to be as everything in her life falls apart. The audio book was especially fun to listen to because the reader had such a convincing midwestern accent.
    • 5/5
      As far as debut novels go, it’s hard to top Murdock’s DAIRY QUEEN, a winning combination of wit and heart, love and loss. But incredibly, she succeeds with its sequel, THE OFF SEASON. It is everything her first book is, and more.As quite possibly the first girl in her state ever to be on her high school football team, D.J. Schwenk has been getting a lot of attention and publicity lately, and she doesn’t want any of it… particularly as she fears it will make her something-or-other friendship/relationship with Brian Nelson, her rival high school’s star quarterback, even more confusing than it already is. But D.J. never has to go looking for publicity and problems; they come to her. More than ever, she is worried about the future of the Schwenk farm, a dilapidated, outdated relic from the past. Her youngest brother, Curtis, has been mysteriously running off with some girl.Things only get worse when a bad shoulder injury forces her to quit the football team, going from Most Intriguing Girl in Town to Most Despised. D.J. has no time to wallow in self-pity, however, for not long after that her brother Win is badly injured in a football game and has lost his will to live as a cripple. With all of these issues that SHE has to deal with, it’s no wonder she has no time for schoolwork, friendships, and even Brian. D.J. may be forced to grow up faster than she wants, but maybe some good will come out of it all in the end.In THE OFF SEASON, Murdock continues her beloved heroine’s story, throwing more hardships her way. The amount D.J. has to deal with may seem like a rural soap opera sometime, but nevertheless D.J. prevails, and so does our admiration and envy of her. She is the best friend you always wish you could have.
    • 5/5
      I won a set of these books from a book club contest. I just finished the book and can't wait to go back and read Dairy Queen. DJ is the only girl playing varsity football around. Her life is going along smoothly, so smoothly in fact she feels like the other shoe is about to drop. And it sure does. On top of discovering her family's money troubles that may put the future of their farm in jeopardy, her kind-of boyfriend never wants be seen with her in public, her best friend has stopped coming to school, she hurts her shoulder, and her oldest brother has been seriously injured in a football game. DJ deals with all the turmoils with sincerity. This book was a joy to read!
    • 5/5
      Things for D.J. Schwenk are finally working out. She's helping the football team win games, her best friend has returned and is speaking to her again and she has a boyfriend she can't stop thinking about. However, life can never be that easy and when tragedy strikes it strikes hard. Very soon D.J. is learning that there are more important things in life than football.I was really apprehensive going into this book having liked "Dairy Queen" so very much. Although it is a much more serious and sad story I thought it was much better. Considering I thought "Dairy Queen" was a pretty amazing book, that's saying something. D.J. is an amazing character that you keep rooting for. This book is a discovery of exactly how strong a person D.J. is and of what she wants to be in the future. I would very highly recommend both of Ms. Murdock's stories.