Front and Center [Hardcover]

I happily set aside my usual diet of books about witches, shapechangers, and dragons when it comes to Catherine Murdock's YA novels about D.J. Schwenk. I'm also the kid that used to get hit in the head by the ball in any number of sports with names ending in -ball, but who cares? A good book is a good book, and the D.J. Schwenk books are very, very good: Dairy Queen, The Off Season, and now Front and Center.

D.J. is a tall, big-boned girl and a gifted athlete from a family of gifted athletes, but her family is not known for its communication skills. They aren't stupid, they're just not talkers. Her two older brothers are talented college football players. Her younger brother is athletic, too, though he talks so little that his teachers worry about him. In Dairy Queen, the coach of a rival high school sends his spoiled rich-boy quarterback to help out on the Schwenk farm, where D.J. is doing all of the work alone because her father has broken his hip. D.J. ends up coaching Brian Nelson in football, while he coaches her on the advantages of talking more. In The Off Season, D.J. plays high school football, and she and Brian begin to get closer. But D.J. realizes that Brian is ashamed to be seen in public with her. A lot of other things go wrong, but none of them seem to matter much when D.J.'s older brother Win suffers a very serious injury playing football. She drops everything to stand by him, coaching and cajoling him through rehab.

In this third book, Front and Center, we find that although D.J. has learned to open up more thanks to her now-defunct relationship with Brian, she is still not the type to take center stage. As she returns to playing high school basketball, she realizes that's exactly what her coach expects her to do: become a leader for the team. Heavily recruited by college basketball coaches, D.J. finds that everyone around her is pushing her to verbally commit to playing Big Ten college ball. But she pulls back, afraid she can't take the pressure. Meanwhile, she is dating her buddy Beaner, although she still finds herself thinking about Brian Nelson. Even as D.J. leans toward playing for a smaller college team, life and the people who care about her conspire to convince her that she's got too much going for her to settle for less--whether in dating or in basketball.

I cannot emphasize enough how authentic D.J.'s narrative voice is. Sometimes in YA, we meet an endless parade of main characters who seem to be channeling terribly clever urban 30-somethings with their banter and sarcasm. In contrast, D.J. is such a fresh combination of ordinary and extraordinary, the way real girls are, the ones you walk past every day. Listen to her frank and slightly funny voice at the beginning of Front and Center, when she mistakenly thinks she's going to able to stay out of the limelight and avoid trouble, including boys:

"But most of all--and this is what I was looking forward to the very, very most--I was done with all that boyfriend crap. Finished with the 24/7 Brian Nelson cable station that had been running nonstop inside my skull since July. No more feeling like I was some fluttery girl who doesn't have anything better to do all day long than think about her boyfriend. Because I did have better things to think about, thank you very much, because I am not the kind of girl who has boyfriends; I'm the kind who's just friends with boys, which is totally different and which I'm actually kind of good at. I'd pulled the plug on that Brian Nelson cable station for good.

That's why it felt so nice to be getting back to school. Because after five months I was back to being plain old background D.J. That's how I thought about it, anyway. In photographs of course I'm always in the background--it's a family joke, actually, that us Schwenk kids could go to school naked on picture day because we're all so crazy tall. But I mean that I was returning to the background of life. Where no one would really notice me or talk about me or even talk to me much except to say 'Nice shot,' and I could just hang out without too many worries at all."

It's a real gift to be able to watch D.J. struggle to grow into herself in Dairy Queen, The Off Season, and now Front and Center. Catherine Murdock is so adept that she even manages to let us know that D.J. will probably end up being an incredible basketball coach in ten or fifteen years. But this and other messages, such as the cow metaphor used so well in Dairy Queen, never call unnecessary attention to themselves. Which reminds me of D.J.'s own self-effacing style. Even so, D.J., the messages, and these three books still manage to shine. Read them, please. You will be very glad you got to know D.J. Schenk.

I loved Dairy Queen and The Off Season. DJ Schwenk is such an amazing character, and it's not because she's supergirl. It's because she's NOT.

DJ is starting the basketball season of her junior year, eager to get back to how things used to be before her relationship with Brian Nelson was exposed to the world - thus exposing her to the world. She'd like to get back to the background, thankyouverymuch, and had every intention of doing so. That is, until she walks into her coach's office right before the season begins.

This book is funny, light, and incredibly loveable. Her family is just as quirky as ever, her relationship with Brian Nelson is still weird, and she's still just as good at sports as she ever was. What's different? It's time for DJ to step forward and officially become what she's always been - a leader.

I loved how DJ 'coached' Brian in Dairy Queen. And I loved how DJ made Win see how important he was, even if he couldn't walk. These are traits of a leader, and yet DJ never stepped into that role. But in order for her to do what she wants, which is to leave Red Bend and see other parts of the world, that's exactly what she has to do. Front and Center is a wonderful story of DJ's journey, showing her dealing with her many faults, and seeing her step up to face her ultimate fear: the spotlight.

I have loved watching DJ grow into herself in this trilogy - since she's so big, it was a lot to grow into. :) I will miss DJ...

While this book isn't as strong as Dairy Queen, it's still a great book. This is definitely a good read for boys or girls, for teens of any age. Highly recommended.

DJ Schwenk, the likable lead in the DAIRY QUEEN trilogy anchored by this new release, is the type of girl anyone would love to call a daughter, sister, friend, student, or player. Well-rounded, intelligent, diligent, helpful, caring, athletic -- DJ has it all. This book lacks the freshness of the first, where readers were treated to a Wisconsin dairy farmer's daughter who had the gumption not only to play boys' football in high school, but to fall in love with the arch-rival school's quarterback. It also gets off to a slow start. But eventually, FRONT AND CENTER rights itself and closes strong and suitably, ending Catherine Gilbert Murdock's trilogy in a manner that should more than satisfy fans of the first two books.

FRONT AND CENTER's chief narrative concerns are DJ's love life and her college choice. She starts to see a clownish boy named Beaner because Beaner makes her happy and helps her forget Brian. But then Brian re-enters the picture, and it's hard to forget a boy when he keeps showing up in your kitchen, your barn, and your thoughts night and day. Meantime, the Division I colleges are aggressively courting DJ due to her basketball prowess. Trouble is, thoughts of playing on a big stage make her stomach ill. She's convinced that she'd rather be a big fish in a Division III bowl.

Despite the sluggish start and plot devices (see above) that are not exactly bracing, character carries the day. Murdock also uses humor to her advantage. For example, in a discussion between DJ and Brian about playing D-I ball, we have this exchange:

"Do you know how many people watch D-I? I'd barf my guts out if I had to do that."

"That's not a good reason not to do it, though."

"Yeah, it is! People can die from barfing, like that thing you get when you're pregnant and you throw up so much that you die..."

"No one dies from barfing, not anymore. They have IVs now and stuff."

"Like I'm going to go out on the court with an IV."

"Huh... Would knocking over an IV pole be considered an offensive foul?"

"Oh, totally. But you could use the pole to set one heck of a screen -- "

"Uh-uh. Six inches max between player and pole."

This dialogue typifies the light spirit of the book. Overall, if you've read the first two books, you may find this weaker but should still enjoy it for that "loose strings pulled together" feeling. And if you haven't read any of Murdock's stuff, by all means go back and read DAIRY QUEEN. It's as fun and wholesome as a tall glass of milk.

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