All Voices Book Club

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

Explore diverse perspectives with books carefully chosen to get you thinking, feeling, and talking across generations. This book club is for adults and teens (ages 13 and up).

Danvers, Massachusetts, 1989. A high school field hockey team discovers that the witchcraft of their Salem forebears may be the key to a winning season. In this tour de female force, the Danvers High School Falcons Varsity is on an unaccountable streak. In chapters dense with '80s iconography--from Heathers to Big Hair--Quan Barry expertly weaves the individual and collective journeys of this enchanted team: the quiet, husky goalie Mel Boucher, who signs her name to a pledge of darkness in a notebook with heartthrob Emilio Estevez on the cover; the top bitch forward, Jen Fiorenza, whose bleached blond "Claw" sees and knows all; the good-girl captain Abby Putnam (a descendant of the famous Salem witness Ann Putnam), who is hesitant to sign her name to the Emilio pact; AJ Johnson, the team's one black player, for whom enchantment brings racial awakening; the untouchably beautiful Girl Cory and her name-twin Boy Cory, who plays this female sport for his own reasons. These "witches" and their teammates are as wily and original as their North of Boston ancestors, flouting society's stale notions of femininity to find their true selves in a celebration of teen girldom in all its glory.

All Voices Book Club is a book discussion group for adults and teens (ages 13 and up) that meets quarterly. Books are available at the previous discussion and then at the Information Desk. This program is funded by the Friends of the Bettendorf Public Library.

If you are a person with a disability who requires special assistance, please call 563-344-4175 in advance.

Upcoming Events