Pop

I was pleasantly surprised to come upon this sports book by Gordon Korman. I had no idea that he has a talent for writing sports fiction that's right up there with Mike Lupica and Tim Green.

This story focuses on the potential health risks associated with repeated head injuries in football. Marcus is new in town. School doesn't start for another month, so he practices his passing skills at the local park. The first day he's tackled by a large middle-aged guy who loves football, especially the hard takedowns. Marcus wants the quarterback position, but with Charlie's "coaching" he also sets himself up for being a linebacker. Right away Marcus notices something odd about Charlie. He's a grown man and yet he steals, vandalizes, and runs show more away from responsibility. Each time, Marcus is the one left to take the blame.

Meanwhile, the football team isn't happy about the new kid coming in and shaking up their perfect rhythm. They already have a quarterback, Troy, that threw a perfect season last year. Adding fuel to the fire, Marcus learns that the guy he's been hanging out with at the park is Troy's dad and he's not just any dad. He's a former NFL player. When Marcus learns that Charlie's strange behavior is due to Alzheimer's, all he wants to do is help him hang on to his memory. Their relationship is one more irritation to Troy who just wants his old dad back. As the disease gets worse, so does Troy's football skills. He's afraid of the hit that might set him up for a future like his dad's.

I'm not giving it away, but the ending is quite unexpected and sad. Read at your own risk if you don't like sad endings. The book is shelved in teen fiction at the library due to references to making out, a party with alcohol and one use of profanity. The characters in the book are in high school, whereas in Lupica and Green books they are in middle school. All of the YA stuff is as mild as it gets. I recommend the book for grade 7 and up. show less

Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

If I was asked to write a one word review for POP by Gordon Korman, I would write - Fantastic! Once readers start passing this one around, it may never touch a bookshelf again.

Quarterback want-to-be Marcus Jordan is packed up and moved to the mountains of New York state by his divorced mother. It's no big loss in the dad department considering he refers to his father as Comrade Stalin. He knows he and his mother are better off out of Kansas and on their own, but it's the summer before his junior year, and his dream of playing varsity quarterback may not survive the move.

With no friends yet to occupy his time and definitely no fellow football companions to work out with, show more Marcus heads to the local city park to create his own workout. He is attempting some passing practice when a burly, middle-aged guy shows up and sprints into the park and picks off one of his passes. Before he knows it, the guy is putting him through his paces. They are passing the ball like crazy and then running patterns and hitting each other like it's the biggest game of the season. And then the guy is gone.

Marcus learns the man's name is Charlie. Without any regular schedule or plan, they start working out together in the park. Charlie just sort of shows up - maybe one day, but not the next, and rarely ever at the same time. Even with crazy and unreliable appearances, the time Marcus spends with Charlie is really improving his game.

Whenever Marcus tries to find out exactly who Charlie is, he runs into a roadblock. Their time together is basically all about football - until the day a wild pass ends up crashing through the side window of a car parked along the street. Charlie disappears faster than Marcus believed possible, leaving him to write a note to the car owner promising to pay the repair bill. After that more strange things begin to happen. Marcus notices that when he and Charlie leave the park to grab a Gatorade or a bag of ice to ice down an injury, Charlie simply grabs what they need from a local store and leaves without paying a cent. Weird... but the weirdness is outweighed by the fantastic football knowledge Marcus is gaining from this awesome athlete.

As school starts that fall, Marcus finds it difficult to fit into the already stacked football roster. The team has a super reputation and is heading into a second undefeated season. There seems to be no hope that he will play quarterback. In his attempt to make friends and fit in with the team, Marcus learns that Charlie is the father of the team's star quarterback. It makes sense that such a great player would have a talented son, but Marcus also discovers that there is some sort of family secret and Charlie seems to be at the center of it.

Gordon Korman is at his best in POP. He has wrapped a tremendous amount into this fast-paced novel. In addition to football action, readers will experience Marcus's "new guy" frustration, emotions twisted by his parents' divorce, and the discovery of a horribly debilitating disease. Readers will find it difficult to stop reading once they have met Marcus and Charlie.

Run, don't walk, to the nearest library or bookstore to get a copy of POP. show less

Marcus Jordan made a pretty good name for himself as quarterback on the JV team at his old high school. But he and his mom have just moved halfway across the country, and the team at his new high school isn't that eager to embrace him: they had a winning streak last year, they already have a great quarterback in Troy Popovich, and they don't see any point in messing with a good thing. Doing football drills at the park, Marcus forms an unlikely friendship with a middle-aged man who can REALLY play some football. He later finds out that Charlie was an NFL player through the 1980s and 1990s.
Problem: turns out Charlie is Troy's dad, and Troy, who already dislikes Marcus,does NOT want Marcus hanging out with anyone in his family.
The more show more Marcus gets to know Charlie, the more he realizes that what he thought was quirkiness is really something much different: a secret that Troy and his mom and sister are trying to hide from the rest of the town.
This action-packed sports story has a nice dose of moral dilemma added in: what would you do if you were Marcus? show less

Erskine, Katherine. (2010). Mockingbird. New York: Penguin/Philomel. 340 pp. ISBN 978-0-399-25264-8 (Hardcover); $15.99.

Caitlin is ten and has Asperger’s and her brother has been murdered. Black and white is easy. Caitlin, however, must figure out how to bring color and closure and other hard things into her life. I am a sucker for books told from the Asperger’s/Autistic spectrum. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has an exhibit that allows visitors to see the skin on their hands and arms magnified exponentially. Mockingbird does the same sort of thing, but with concepts like, “friends” or “closure.” Too often we read a word like “empathy” and we just assume that we know what that word means without bothering show more to explore the meaning up close and magnified. Erskine follows the structure of To Kill a Mockingbird (the movie) in subtle ways. Like Caitlin who has to navigate the conflicting meanings of things like smiles, especially when people do NOT follow the facial expressions chart, readers must discover that phrases like “Mission chest” have layered meanings, as do the way words are capitalized. When one does a book featuring Autistic/Asperger’s the details must be right. They match what I have read and experienced. Caitlin draws a picture of the middle school art teacher but does not include his eyes (and eye contact is a detail that she works on constantly with Mrs. Brooks). Devon is working on his Eagle Scout project, in which Scout was to play an important role. We have the irritation of shirt tags and quarter cut oak. We have the capitalizations. The details of Caitlin’s voice remain true throughout the book and yet Caitlin’s growth, which stimulates her grieving father’s progress, seems entirely natural. Look for this one to win awards and show up on all kinds of lists. Purchase this one for high school libraries and place it in the hands of anyone that loves exceptionally well-crafted stories in which every word matters. show less

I agree with other reviewers that the appeal of this is not just for football fans or reluctant readers. And indeed it does help me see what some of the appeal of football is.

It's far from what I consider a perfect book: for example, some of the supporting themes are almost as unsubtle as the main ones... but then again, it has multiple themes, which is a big point in its favor imo. Also in its favor, some of the minor characters are as interesting as the main ones, there's humor, wisdom, poignancy, adventure, and an exploration of what it means to do the right thing, and what it means to be a good man.

Korman keeps working at developing his craft; I think he's getting better and better. And I think that I like his books for teens even show more better than his juveniles. I will continue to read whatever he writes. show less

Prolific YA author, Gordan Korman, is back with another gem. With tight lines and smart straight humour, he weaves together a story about high school football, friendship, and Alzheimer’s that really puts a heavy tackle on the heart. You don't need to be a football fan to appreciate Pop; you need to be a fan of overcoming obstacles and cheering for the hero. Recommended for Grades 7-10.

I know little about football, but a love of the game wasn't required to thoroughly enjoy this story of a teen and his unconventional mentor. This was a loving portrayal of a hero living with Alzheimer's disease. The occasional change in point of view was jarring, but on the whole I enjoyed this. I would recommend it to someone looking for realistic fiction about sports, and I would caution that it is not Korman's one of laugh a minute books.