The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Anyway, Murdock tackles Win's injury in this really powerful, emotional way, and goes into a lot of details about the hospital and physical therapy, and that is just so unique in YA fiction. There is so, so much strength in D.J., and she just does not see it yet, but I'm getting ahead of myself since that's what book three is obviously going to be about.

doesn't know what to do with her taciturn brother, but she turns out to be just the right person to help him, with her slow, quiet, determined Schwenk ways. Win, unsurprisingly, does not take the injury well.

That is so much pressure to put on one teen girl. basically puts her whole life on hold to help Win, because no one else in her family can take the time off, since her mother badly injured her back, her father needed to help his wife, her other older brother has football and college, and her younger brother is in middle school. The Off Season is about Win's injury and the way the Schwenk family pulls together to help him.ĭ.J.

Even with intense physical therapy, he'll probably not regain much use of his body. His dreams have been crushed, and he had a real shot at pro ball. He will never walk again, and that's just one thing among many that he'll never be able to do again. Injuries happen in football all the time, but this one is life-changing: Win's spinal cord snapped. Her oldest brother, Win, is injured in a football game, one the whole family was watching live. The real story here, though, isn't about D.J., though she's central to it and crucial to the way things unfold. be so mature and face up so bravely to the judgment of her classmates is inspiring. Though it's sad to see her give up on her football, seeing D.J. However, it's such a mature choice, because, if she didn't stop playing, a minor injury might become a bigger deal and prevent her from playing basketball, which is pretty much her only shot at a scholarship and college. She has reasons, good ones, but it's still anticlimactic after all the build up. managing to join the boys' football team, she quits. Right at the very beginning, after the first book in the series was all about D.J. Murdock takes some risks with the second book in the series, no question. Though I think I was perhaps a bit less interested in the plot of The Off Season than in Dairy Queen or Front Center, which I've already started, I'm also hugely impressed by the content and daring in the subject matter. Where in Dairy Queen, the focus is all on DJ, she is, in some ways, not the central character in The Off Season, playing a more supportive role: sister and daughter. The Off Season differs quite a bit from Dairy Queen.

The Off Season by Catherine Gilbert Murdock