Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Next on the list... the book for Wisconsin is Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock.  This was a little hard to get into.  Subject matters was a little boring , not going to lie.  Finally about half way the book did take a turn and got a little more exciting.  The book's not bad, but not a great choice for building up the middle school collection either.

D.J. is the hard working daughter of a dairy farmer.  Suddenly her life becomes a routine of getting up early, milking the cows, cleaning the cow pens and equipment, working on the farm, milking the cows again, cleaning the milking machinery, and going to bed to start it all over again.  Her father hurt his hip and, with her two older brothers gone playing football, she's the only one left to take care of the daily operations of the family dairy farm.  The big problem... her dad is critical of everything, including her work on the farm.  He's already scared away the older brothers when they moved out of the house during a Christmas argument.

The dad used to coach football before his father passed away and left him the dairy farm.  He still has a great coaching buddy, Jimmy Ott, at the rival high school.  He sends his quarterback, Brian, to help D.J. on the farm, and asks if she'll train him on the side.  Well, D.J. does help improve Brian's football skills, and Brian helps her realize how important communication is for families.

I'm not going to spoil the rest, but there is an interesting twist as D.J. begins to realize there's more to life then being the self-sacrificing daughter.