Front and Center

Front and Center
by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Written for young people, this is the third title about DJ Schwenk, a high school junior from rural Wisconsin, who lives on a run-down dairy farm. She's not the best student, has a somewhat dysfunctional family, and is an amazingly gifted athlete. In this installment, DJ is starting to get her life back after taking a break from school and normal life to care for her older brother who was injured playing football. She's trying hard in school and is back on the basketball team, playing phenomenally. But she's feeling immense pressure from her coach, the townfolk, and especially her brother, to commit to playing Division I b-ball at a big 10 university. Her self-doubts and self-image are so true to life. I think the author did a great job in portraying DJ's fears and struggles for self-awareness and would serve to help all young women realize how unnecessarily hard they can be on themselves. I recommend the story highly for this reason. Read these books in order: Dairy Queen, The Off Season, and then Front and Center.

- Linda