front and center by catherine gilbert murdock

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. Meanwhile, she is dating her buddy Beaner, although she still finds herself thinking about Brian Nelson. But she pulls back, afraid she can't take the pressure. finds that everyone around her is pushing her to verbally commit to playing Big Ten college ball. Heavily recruited by college basketball coaches, D.J. 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. has learned to open up more thanks to her now-defunct relationship with Brian, she is still not the type to take center stage. In the third book, Front and Center, we find that although D.J. She drops everything to stand by him, coaching and cajoling him through rehab. All of this becomes irrelevant, however, when D.J.'s older brother Win suffers a very serious injury on the sports field. and Brian are featured in a People magazine article, which outs their relationship to the whole world. But things start to go wrong-the farm's finances are in trouble, D.J.'s gay friend Amber gets bullied, Brian acts like he's ashamed to be seen in public with D.J., and then D.J. plays high school football, and she and Brian begin to get closer. Of course, it stuns a lot of people for more obvious reasons. She misses playing basketball, but eventually decides to try out for the football team, which stuns Brian, who will have to play against her. to question the fact that her older brothers aren't speaking to her father. Being around someone who communicates encourages D.J.

ends up coaching Brian Nelson in football, while he coaches her on the advantages of talking more. is doing all of the work alone because her father has broken his hip. 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. Her younger brother is athletic, too, though he talks so little that his teachers worry about him.

Her two older brothers are talented college football players. They aren't stupid, they're just not talkers. 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. Schwenk books are very, very good: Dairy Queen, The Off Season, and now Front and Center.ĭ.J. 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. 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.

Front and center by catherine gilbert murdock