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| Perma-Bound Edition ©2009 | -- |
| Publisher's Hardcover ©2009 | -- |
| Paperback ©2009 | -- |
Football. Fiction.
Alzheimer's disease. Fiction.
High schools. Fiction.
Schools. Fiction.
Moving, Household. Fiction.
Divorce. Fiction.
Football player Marcus isn't happy about moving to a new town, but at least the high school has an undefeated team. Too bad the team is a closed club, led by quarterback Troy Popovich, who takes a special dislike to Marcus when his old girlfriend shows Marcus some love. The best part of Marcus' football life comes in the park, where he is befriended by Charlie, a quirky older guy who teaches Marcus how to take a hit and love the "pop" that comes with intense contact. Yet it's clear something's not quite right about Charlie, who, as it turns out, is Troy's father. Korman juggles several stories here as Marcus finally figures out that Charlie suffers from early onset Alzheimer's, brought on by the physical traumas of a pro career. There's some solid action on the field, but mostly there are Marcus' schemes to help Charlie, which sometimes go to ridiculous lengths. However, this story has heart. And as it shows the confusion and frustrations for both patient and family that come with Alzheimer's, it breaks some hearts, too.
Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)Sixteen-year-old Marcus is determined to make the football team. He meets Charlie, an older man with an "enthusiasm for smashmouth football," and soon discovers that his fun-loving but erratic practice partner is an NFL veteran with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Through their unique friendship, Korman realistically presents both the thrill of playing football and the sport's possible long-term health risks.
Kirkus ReviewsFootball will be the way Marcus Jordan makes the transition to his new school, so he practices in the park, preparing for tryouts. There he meets the enigmatic Charlie, a middle-aged man who knows much about football and conveys what Marcus has been missing in his game: fearlessness. "I love the pop! Sometimes you actually hear it go pop !" As bad luck would have it, Charlie is the father of Troy, star of the team, who takes an instant dislike to Marcus. Soon it is clear that Charlie is not eccentric but suffering from early-onset Alzheimer's caused by all the hits he took as a player in the NFL, a fact his family works hard to conceal. Marcus's involvement with Charlie exposes the secret and reveals the family tensions it has created. This carefully structured story, despite the difficult issue at its core, engages readers primarily with complex characters (including secondary ones) and well-drawn relationships. The football scenes are riveting, but the poignant human drama more than holds its own. Banking his usual over-the-top humor, Korman goes straight to the heart. (Fiction. 12 & up)
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)Shortly after moving to a new town, Marcus encounters Charlie, a strange, middle-aged man who turns out to be an incredible football player. Marcus, hoping to be a varsity quarterback at his new school, begins meeting Charlie regularly. Charlie is a challenging and rewarding opponent, but there are mysteries about him that plague Marcus (“It was annoying, but waiting to see if Charlie was going to show up soon became Marcus's personal reality TV show”). Most puzzling: “For some reason, he thought he was a teenager, too.” At school, Marcus loses the quarterback position to school hero Troy—Charlie's son. Troy is oddly guarded about his father, but Marcus eventually figures out Charlie's secret: the repeated blows the former NFL player received resulted in early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Korman (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">The Juvie Three) skillfully weaves football terminology into the narrative without making it sound like a playbook, and Marcus's heartfelt loyalty to Charlie is believable, if the plotting is occasionally less so. Despite the athletic focus, this thought-provoking story is, at its core, about friendship and should have broad appeal. Ages 12–up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Sept.)
School Library Journal (Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)Gr 9 Up-"Pop" is the imagined, internal sound of the perfect football tackle, as new-kid-in-town Marcus finds out the hard way from a hit by an ex-NFL linebacker. Middle-aged but possessing what at first seems to be a harmless, young-at-heart attitude, Charlie Popovich becomes Marcus's friend, mentor, and partner in crime for an elaborate (and hilarious) prank. Unfortunately, their relationship only increases the contentious atmosphere between Marcus and Charlie's son. Already vying for the school's starting quarterback position and the affection of the head cheerleader, Marcus finds that matters become even more complicated when he learns that Charlie's erratic behavior is caused by early-onset Alzheimer's. Korman offers a touching and realistic portrayal of an Alzheimer patient's episodes, the emotional roller coaster of the disease's effect on loved ones, and the naive yet endearing arrogance of a teen who wants to do what is best for his friend. Marcus must make some hard decisions, whether during the frenzied action of a football play or surrounded by family members whose hearts are about to break. Readers will stick by him in this absorbing story of both action and emotion. Joanna K. Fabicon, Los Angeles Public Library
Voice of Youth Advocates (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)High school junior Marcus Jordan and his newly single mother have left Kansas and Marcus's overly controlling father for a small town in upstate New York. Marcus is looking to join the high school football team. He set a JV quarterback county record at his old school, but that achievement might not be enough to get him a spot on this team. Last year they had a perfect season and with only four graduating seniors, the team is not welcoming newbies, especially a newbie who wants to replace star QB Troy Popovich. While working on his skills in a park at the center of town, Marcus is joined by a middle-aged man. Charlie is fast, agile, and strong; he loves the "pop" of a good hit and teaches Marcus to love it too. Marcus is grateful for the dramatic improvement in his game, but how does Charlie have time to play ball in the middle of the day with a kid he just met? Girls will appreciate the head cheerleader's football savvy and the emotional entanglements of various characters, but what puts this book at the head of the class is its boy appeal, both for readers and non-readers alike. At first one might expect only a simple story about a teen hoping to make his high school football team, but that assumption would be wrong. Instead readers will be sucked into compelling story lines on complicated family situations, peer acceptance, the game of football, and the effects of progressive Alzheimer's disease on the persons involved, their families, and friendsùthemes that flow seamlessly together.ùStacey Hayman.
ALA Booklist (Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Horn Book (Thu Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2010)
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
School Library Journal (Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)
Voice of Youth Advocates (Thu Apr 28 00:00:00 CDT 2022)
Chapter One
Marcus Jordan killed the motor on his Vespa and surveyed the flowering shrubs and tall maples surround-ing him. Nice. Picturesque, even.
More like The Twilight Zone.
For starters, the nameâThree Alarm Park, after some chili cook-off that used to be held there in the sixties or something.
Marcus jumped down, pulling the gym bag off his shoulders. From it, he produced the items that would turn Three Alarm Park into a practice facilityâa regulation football, a length of rope, and a round, plastic picture frame with the glass knocked out.
He looked around, noting that the only other living creature was a squirrel. This was the fourth straight day he'd trained here, and he'd yet to exchange a word of conversation with anybody but himself. Dead summerâgreat time to move to a new state. Thanks, Mom.
He tossed the rope over a high branch and strung up the picture-frame hoop. Then he started the target swinging gently and retreated about ten yards.
Hike!
Just like he'd done a million times before, he took three steps back and let fly.
The ball sizzled, a perfect spiral, missing the hoop by at least four feet.
Marcus snorted. Lonely and lousy. A one-two punch. With the added insult of having to chase down your own pass so you could mess it up all over again.
He worked his way up to four for ten, then eleven for twenty, and then he broke out the water bottle to give himself a party. Here in the middle of the open field, the only protection from the August sun was a large granite modern art statue titled Remembrance, which looked like a titanic paper airplane had fallen from the sky and buried its nose in the grass at a forty-five-degree angle. A river of perspiration streamed down the middle of Marcus's back. So he did what any self-respecting football player would do. He cranked it up a notch. Football was the only sport where adverse weather conditions made you go harder instead of quitting. He'd still be out here if it were only ten degrees and he were slogging through knee-deep snow and blizzard conditions.
Intermissionâa dozen laps around the field, to really feel the pain. Then he was throwing again, from different angles and farther away. His completion percentage went down, but his determination never wavered. There was something about launching a football thirty-five or forty yards and having it go exactly where you aimed it. To a quarterback, it was as basic as breathing.
Sucking in a lungful of moist, heavy air, Marcus pumped once and unleashed the longest pass of the day, a loose spiral that nevertheless seemed to have a lot of power behind it. It sailed high over the apex of the Paper Airplane before beginning its downward trajectory toward the hoop.
For the first time in four days, Marcus spied another human being in the park. The figure was just a blur across his field of vision. It leaped into the air, picked off the pass, and kept on going.
The receiver made a wide U-turn and, grinning triumphantly, jogged up to Marcus.Marcus smiled too. "Nice catch, broâ"
He was looking at a middle-aged man, probably around fifty years old. He was tall and built redwood solid. But the guy ran like a gazelle and had caught the ball with sure hands, tucking it in tight as he ran. He had definitely played this game before.
"Sorry," Marcus added, embarrassed.
"For what?" The man flipped him the ball. "Making you look bad?"
"I just thoughtânever mind. My name's Marcus. Marcus Jordan."
With lightning hands, the man knocked the ball loose, scooped it up on the bounce, and bellowed, "Go deep!"
Starved for company, Marcus did not have to be asked twice. He took off downfield, glancing over his shoulder.
"Noâdeep!"
"I'm running out of park!" Marcus shouted, but kept on going, his breath growing short. Another backward glance. The ball was on its way. Marcus broke into a full sprint. The old guy had an arm like a cannon!
He took to the air in a desperation dive. For an instant, the ball was right there on his fingertips. He had it. . . .
The ground swung up quickly and slammed him, and the pass bounced away. He lay there for a moment, hyperventilating and spitting out turf. The next thing he saw was the fifty-something-year-old, beaming and pulling him back to his feet.
"Way to miss everything."
"You overthrew me a little," Marcus said, defending himself.
The man plucked the ball off the grass. "You couldn't catch a cold, Mac."
"It's Marcus," he amended. "And you are . . . ?"
The old guy scowled. "Your worst nightmare if you don't quit pulling my chain."
Marcus flushed. "What should I call you?"
"Try Charlie, stupid. Heads!" He punted the ball straight up in the air.
The kick was very high, silhouetted against the cobalt blue sky, tiny and soaring.
Marcus was instantly on board, shuffling first one way and then the other as he tried to predict where it would come down. For some reason, it was very important to make this catch, especially since he'd screwed up the other one. It was his natural competitiveness, but there was something more. This Charlie character might be weird, but his enthusiasm had sucked Marcus in.
The ball plunged down, and Marcus gathered it into his arms.
Something hit him. The impact was so jarring, so unexpected, that there was barely time to register what was happening. It was Charlieâhe'd rammed a rock-hard shoulder into Marcus's sternum and dropped him where he stood. The ball squirted loose, but Marcus wasn't even aware of it. He lay like a stone on the grass, ears roaring, trying to keep from throwing up his breakfast.
Gasping, he scrambled to his feet, squaring off against his companion. "What was that for?"
"I love the pop! Sometimes you actually hear it go pop!"
"That was the sound of my head coming off," Marcus muttered.
Pop. Copyright © by Gordon Korman . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Excerpted from Pop by Gordon Korman
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Pop delivers suspense, humor, sports action, and a compelling look at the damage those "pop"s in football can cause
Gordon Korman's books appeal to a wide range of kids and adults and can pull in even reluctant readers. Share Pop in your home or classroom; sports fans in particular won't be able to put it down.
When Marcus moves to a new town in the dead of summer, he doesn't know a soul. While practicing football for impending tryouts, he strikes up a friendship with a man named Charlie, the best football player Marcus has ever seen. He can't believe his good luck when he finds out that Charlie is Charlie Popovich, or "the King of Pop," as he'd been nicknamed during his career as an NFL linebacker.
Charlie turns out to be a prankster, and his actions get Marcus in trouble. He's also the father of the quarterback at Marcus's new school—who leads the team in icing out the new kid.
The story of a good kid's struggle to land on his feet in a new town after his parents split up combines with compelling sports action and even some romance in Gordon Korman's Pop.