Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
So this was the last of the Dairy Queen books as far as I know. I loved it too!! This one is still in D.J.'s Junior year of High School. It is called front and center because D.J. starts to get WAY more attention than she ever wanted in her life with Boys, School, Colleges, even her family. It stresses her out for most of the book. D.J. discovers that Beaner, who she thought was just a friend, wants to be more. And she discovers that her mind is not yet ready to be done thinking about Brian. Win, her high school basketball coach, and college coachs start to put on the pressure for DJ to become the assertive player she could be (and cant get herself to become until her friend Ashley's Suggestion). Both D.J. and Brian have learned a lot about themselves and their families through the course of the three books and it is all kind of accumulated in this last one. I absolutely Love D.J. and all of the characters and am pretty sad that it is done, but it was quite an uplifting, eye-opening, and fun coming of age story that is very easy to relate to! So fun! 254 Pages. 3/3 Dairy Queen Books.

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The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Off Season is the sequel to Dairy Queen and it is soo good! This one starts out about 3 days after Dairy Queen leaves off, after the big game DJ played. The off season is about part of D.J.'s Junior year in high school and her decision between playing basketball and football, going to college, dating Brian... Brian and D.J. start off the same as they left off, liking each other. Brian even takes her shopping in another city and buys her things and holds her hand and then on the way home they kiss for the first time, and D.J.'s narration/description of this kiss is quite hilarious! It ends up, however, that Brian acts pretty stupidly around his friends still when it comes to D.J. and then theres the incident with People Magazine and the turkey farmers. Also, in the middle of the football season that D.J. was so enjoying, she gets tackled and hurts her shoulder and is forced to decide between quitting football to save her arm for Basketball, or possibly not being able to play basketball which would be her only way into college- a basketball scholarship. The other HUGE event that piles stress on top of D.J.'s life, is during her brother Wins football game that the family was all gathered to watch, Win gets face masked illegally and breaks his neck! D.J. ends up being the one to be with Win and helping him through his misery. D.J. and her family also learn a lot more about Curtis, her little brother, and his academic abilities. This sequel was great and I cant wait to hear more from D.J. Schwenk! 277 pages. 2nd of 3 Dairy Queen books.

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Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Anne of Green Gables is such an amazing book. It is the one the most pleasant reads I have ever come across. It just fills you with Anne's contentment and enthusiasm with the world. This is such a sweet story about a little 11 or 12 year old orphan girl who is brought to Avonlea by mistake to be adpoted by the Cuthberts, Marrilla and Matthew. They meant to have a boy sent to adopt to help Matthew on the farm but Anne was sent by accident. Matthew is deeply afraid of women and girls alike, but takes an unexpected comfort and liking the Anne. Anne is quite dramatic, talkitive, and imaginative and finds joy in everything around her. If there something not joyful, she imagines that it is. Anne and Marilla and Matthew grow to love oneanthoer dearly. Anne becomes close with the other adults in town as well like Mrs. Rachel Lynde and Mrs. Barry and Miss Barry (The Barry's Aunt) and Mrs. Allen and so forth. Anne meets the little girl next door, Diana, and they take a vow of Bosom Friends Forever. They become the closest and dearest of friends. Anne becomes quite popular with the girls and boys at school. One of the first days at school Anne makes an enemy of Gilbert Blythe. He called her carrots because of her red red hair (which she was quite self concious about) and she becomes infuriated and smashes her tablet over Gilberts head. Anne is always making mistakes but makes the point that even though she is thoughtless often and makes mistakes, she never makes the same mistake twice. Each of the big mistakes, Flavoring the cake wrong, dying her hair, falling off the roof... teach her something thing new and Anne begins to grow up and channel her imaginations and enthusiam into a much more mature way of life. Her and about 6 of the kids she has grown up with go off to college (the rivalry with Gilbert still entact, although at this point it is just for show after rufusing Gilberts last plea for forgivness over the years). Anne learns a lot and comes back to her beloved Green Gables a much distinguished young lady to some more life discovering incidents. This is such a wonderful story of growing up and better yourself. Anne is not perfect, but she tries very hard in life and shows that that is the most important thing. I absoulutely loved this story and cant wait to read the other books. This book had 240 pages.

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The Secret Journal of Brett Colton by Kay Lynn Mangum


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was such a great book!! It dealt with so many issues in this young girl's life, Kathy Colton. Kathy is a 15 year old girl in a family that she cant stand. The thing she cant stand the most is when her family goes off on their nightly tangent of never ending stories of a long passed away brother, Brett. Kathy was two years old when Brett died and doesn't remember him at all and feels left out, unimportant, and annoyed when her family starts talking about him and all the amazing things he did. The only thing about Brett for Kathy is this weird connection she feels somewhere inside her when she looks at his pictures. She cant figure it out. Kathy starts High school and is forced to start tutoring the oh-so-popular-and-handsome Jason West. Jason is a lot like Brett in that Brett and Jason both are some of the youngest QB of the Central High football team. Jason has grown up hearing stories of Brett. Brett even has a plague and picture and trophy in the trophy case at school that Kathy is constantly drawn towards. As Kathy gets to know Jason better, he becomes less and less repulsive to her. Jason struggles with his "cool" image and with just being who he really is. Kathy finds out Jason is a Mormon, and he loves to integrate religious stories into their tutoring sessions as much as he can. On Kathy's sixteenth birthday she receives a very special, unexpected gift from someone she thought she would never, ever know - her big brother Brett. Brett had died of Leukemia 14 years earlier and had written this journal to Kathy so that somehow she could remember him. He had adored her. Brett had also had a Mormon friend who loved to share his religion with him. Throughout Brett's journal and as he gets closer to the impending death that awaits him, he starts to study the religion and read the Book of Mormon and to feel that it is true. He tells of dreams he has about Kathy when she is older and she begins to dream of him too. Brett, Jason, and Kelly (Brett's High school friend) help Kathy to find herself, her family, and God. Now that she understands and knows the person that Brett was and that she will see him again someday, she helps her family through the pain that they are still suffering with. She helps Jason also in being brave enough to stand up to his friends, and reunites Kelly with her family and with Brett by letting him and her family read the journal too. This is a very sweet and inspiring story of Family, love, Faith, and growing up. I absolutely loved it, it meant a lot to me! This book has 334 pages.

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