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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.

Review

“A brisk, heartfelt and timely novel.” — New York Times Book Review

“Korman goes straight to the heart.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Thought-provoking.” — Publishers Weekly

“Fantastic…Perfectly captures the football experience.” — Newsday

“Funny, poignant and full of football action, POP hits you hard and doesn’t let up.” — Tim Green, author of the New York Times bestselling Football Genius and Football Champ

Praise for SUPERGIFTED: “Humorous, relatable, and full of heart, Korman’s gift for understanding the middle school mind is on full display.” — School Library Journal

Praise for SUPERGIFTED: “Managing a large cast of characters with ease, Korman creates a comedy of compounded errors leading to a public disaster and, strangely enough, a happy ending.” — Booklist

Praise for SUPERGIFTED: “Another chortleworthy outing from Korman.” — Kirkus Reviews

Praise for MASTERMINDS: PAYBACK: “Packed with surprising twists, high-speed chases, and plenty of near misses.” — Kirkus Reviews

Praise for MASTERMINDS: PAYBACK: “Korman’s action-packed caper series comes to a satisfying close…with a masterful balance of humor, thought-provoking questions, and adventure” — Booklist

Praise for MASTERMINDS: CRIMINAL DESTINY: “A thrilling and fun series perfect for middle grade adventure seekers” — School Library Journal

Praise for MASTERMINDS: CRIMINAL DESTINY: “Cat-and-mouse chase scenes deliver thrills…Volume 3 can’t get here soon enough.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

Praise for MASTERMINDS: CRIMINAL DESTINY: “Packed with enough thrilling action and suspense to keep the pages turning...[a] highly entertaining series.” — Booklist

Praise for MASTERMINDS: “A terrific page-turner. Full of unexpected twists and revelations. Buckle up.” — James Patterson

Praise for MASTERMINDS: “Masterminds takes readers on a wild ride with terrific humor, a surprising mystery, and characters you can’t help but root for.” — Brandon Mull, New York Times bestselling author of the Fablehaven series and the Five Kingdoms series

Praise for MASTERMINDS: “[A] compelling, twisty mystery . . . [with] a truly gratifying payoff” — Booklist (starred review)

Praise for MASTERMINDS: “This tense, fast-paced story will have readers racing toward the cliffhanger ending.” — Publishers Weekly

Praise for MASTERMINDS: “This tense, fast-paced story will have readers racing toward the cliffhanger ending.” — Kirkus Reviews

Praise for MASTERMINDS: “This unique and action-packed story is filled with twists and turns that readers will not see coming. A wonderful start to what promises to be a thrilling series.” — School Library Journal

Praise for UNGIFTED: “Touching, without being overly sentimental, Ungifted is a gem for readers looking for a story where the underdog comes out on top.” — Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA)

Praise for UNGIFTED: “From its lovable-robot jacket art to its satisfying conclusion, this will please Korman’s fans and win him new ones.” — ALA Booklist

Praise for UNGIFTED: “Donovan has a goofy kindness that charms characters and readers alike … The message is tolerance, and Korman expertly and humorously delivers it in an unpretentious and universally appealing tale.” — School Library Journal

Praise for UNGIFTED: “Funny and insightful.” — Publishers Weekly

From the Back Cover

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 an unlikely friendship with an older man. Charlie is a charismatic prankster—and the best football player Marcus has ever seen. He can't believe his good luck when he finds out that Charlie is actually Charlie Popovich, or "the King of Pop," as he had been nicknamed during his career as an NFL linebacker. But that's not all. There is a secret about Charlie that his own family is desperate to hide.

When Marcus begins school, he meets the starting quarterback on the team: Troy Popovich. Right from the beginning, Marcus and Troy disagree—about football, about Troy's ex-girlfriend, Alyssa, but most of all, about what's good for Charlie. Marcus is betting that he knows what's best for the King of Pop. And he is willing to risk everything to help his friend.

About the Author

Gordon Korman published his first book at age fourteen and since then has written more than one hundred middle grade and teen novels. Favorites include the New York Times bestselling Ungifted, Supergifted, The Superteacher Project, The Unteachables, Pop, Notorious, Unplugged, Operation Do-Over, Slugfest, and the Masterminds series. Gordon lives with his family on Long Island, New York. You can visit him online at gordonkorman.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Pop

Name: Pop
Brand: Balzer + Bray
SKU: U0061742619
Price: 9.75 BHD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.6 (9 reviews)

By Gordon Korman

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

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 name—Three 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 facility—a 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 summer—great 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.

Intermission—a 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, bro—"

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 thought—never 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.

"No—deep!"

"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 Charlie—he'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.

Continues...
Excerpted from Popby Gordon Korman Copyright © 2010 by Gordon Korman. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Review:

4.7 out of 5

93.33% of customers are satisfied

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book about Friendship and Football

1.y.S. · August 8, 2019

Pop by Gordon Popovitch is a book about a kid in high school named Marcus trying to fit in at a new school and football team. Marcus meets an adult named Charlie, who turns out to have played in the NFL. Marcus finds out that Charlie’s family is hiding a secret about him, and it’s up to Marcus to help Charlie. The book is an emotional and touching story. It’s also a great read, even if you don’t like football that much.I really liked this story because I could relate to a lot of things Marcus was going through. Marcus just moved into a new school and is trying to fit in, which I could understand. I also liked this story because I’m interested in football, so the parts where they were playing football were interesting to me.There are some ordinary parts about the book, but there are many special things in the stories. The characters in the story are very stereotypical (new guy, jock, cheerleader). The characters interact in a very interesting way, especially how the character of Charlie ties them all together. The many minor conflicts and disagreements that occurred were typical and ordinary, but the main problem that Marcus faces is very unique and special.After the problem is “solved,” the happy ending was short lived. The story ended in a sad, but satisfying way. Overall, the story was very entertaining (I read it in a single day because I couldn’t stop) and even inspired me to help people in need.In conclusion, Pop is a great story. The plot is interesting, and the end will make readers emotional. Football fans will also not be disappointed because football is mentioned a lot in this story. Readers can learn the importance of friendship and be inspired to help a friend in need. I wouldn’t recommend it to kids too small, because there are a couple of romance scenes and complicated football terms (though it is appropriate for kids around middle school and up). I would recommend this book to readers who are up to reading a decent-sized book about football and friendship.

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book ever I love it!!!!

B.b.e.G.k.i.m.f.a.o.a.t.H.r.h.i.o.o.t.p.t.t.I.d.r.t.b. · June 25, 2024

I love Gordon korman books! But this one is really good! Gordon korman hit this one out of the park! I would recommend it be 13 and up age category but it’s an awesome book! I recommend it to everybody!

4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars

R.Y. · August 20, 2015

Nice book i like it.

5.0 out of 5 stars My rivieW

E.F. · November 4, 2023

The book was a great way to get a new story in your head.I would recommend this to THE whole world.It's a great book on safety of nfl as well.

5.0 out of 5 stars Important and Believable!

B.S. · September 22, 2022

I love all Korman's books. You cannot go wrong choosing one of his mysteries or contemporary middle grade novels. POP has themes of the importance of sportsmanship and empathy for others that are universal.

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite author

C.B. · January 3, 2024

My 12yo really enjoys this author. We have many of his books on our shelves

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING!!!!

K.S. · April 17, 2020

This has been on of the best books I have ever read. It has drama, tragedy and many more. Recommend for Jr high students, enjoy.

3.0 out of 5 stars Good read

C.A. · March 14, 2013

Not fantastic, but good. If you like football, than I guarantee you will like this book. If you don't like football, then don't read it.

The reader really enjoyed this !!!!

A.C. · January 19, 2019

Another great Christmas hit !!!!

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Pop

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