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    POP
    POP
    POP
    Audiobook6 hours

    POP

    Written by Gordon Korman

    Narrated by Nick Podehl

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateAug 25, 2009
    ISBN9781423399728
    POP
    Author

    Gordon Korman

    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.

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    Reviews for POP

    4/5

    137 ratings19 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Great book it is great great great and amazing also excamitory
    • 5/5
      Gordan Korman's POP is a book packed with suspense with a astonishing start middle and end. Its the middle of the summer and Marcus Jordan is moving yet again. The one thing that Marcus can always have with him moving again and again is football. Marcus is a passionate football player and ex-QB at his old high school. He really wants to make the football team at his new high school, but guess what they are state champions and the team is still together! What does Marcus have to do, practise, practise and practise. So he decides to go to the local park in this small town, Three Alarm Park. There he finds a surprise. A middle aged man that is AMAZING at football seems like a really cool guy. This man's name is Charlie. Slowly a strong friendship grows. Later he discovers this "Charlie" is a former NFL linebacker "The king of Pop"! He has been playing football with the king of Pop! While discovering this he, starts school and makes the team not as QB but as several other positions; but there is something stoping the celebrartions Charlie's son Troy hates Marcus and it does not help that Troy's ex-girlfriend is flirting with him. Why is Carlie so mysterious and it seems to Marcus Charlie has not relationship with his own son. Things start to unravel and Marcus finds out Charlie is not who he seems to be...This book to teen fiction lovers, you don't need to love football to love this book. It has it all: drama, relationships, friendships, a bit of mystery and lods of action. I reccomend it :)
    • 3/5
      I was initially reluctant to read this book. I am not a fan of sports fiction and I particularly do not like footbal; but his story was able to go beyond being a simple sports story. It's a school story, a family story, a coming of age story, dealing with illness story, and an overcoming adversity story. It can be used as a springboard for a lot of great discussions. I'm glad I decided to read it after all!
    • 5/5
      Great story that will have the kids reading and the message is one that football players need to hear.
      This book has it all sports, girl friends, drama.
    • 4/5
      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 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?
    • 3/5
      This was a really cute book. I'm not into football, but even so, I could envision the plays (which I really know nothing about) and get into the story.
    • 3/5
      A good book about a a teen trying to fit in at a new school with a string football team. By shear chance he receives one-one-one training from an unlikely person and finds himself involved in some pretty serious stuff.
    • 4/5
      Gordon Korman's Pop impressed me with its unusual football story.How would you feel if you moved to a new town and didn't know a single soul? Well that was Marcus's problem. When Marcus's parents divorced, Marcus decided to live with his mom and they moved to a new town. While tossing a football around in Three Alarm Park by himself, he meets a man in his mid-fifties who also is a prankster, Charlie Popovich.Charlie loved football as much as Marcus did, and they became quick friends. What surprised Marcus more was that Charlie used to be a NFL player and was known as "The King of Pop". But that's not all, Marcus discovers a secret about Charlie that his family is desperate to keep a secret.The main setting of this story is in Three Alarm Park, that's where Marcus met Charlie and also were they practiced football. It was also were Charlie's most memorable memories were.I really liked this book because this book was different from other sport involving books. Instead of focusing the main idea of the story around football too much, it was mainly about Charlie. It also has a very sad ending. But i highly recommend this book to anyone. Great Book!
    • 3/5
      After his parent's harsh divorce, Marcus has to choose sides. He decides to live with his mom, and so they move out of Kansas and to a whole new place called Kennesaw for a "new start". He didn't like Kennesaw a lot since day one, and he doesn't intend on liking it any better as time passes. He's made one friend so far, and he's a middle aged man named Charlie; he was a rather strange for a man of his age. A confusing one. He didnt act like a man of his age at all. Marcus didn't care though, all he wanted was company. So the two would meet up almost everyday and play football together in the green open fields of Three Alarm Park. As time goes by, Marcus notices that Charlie doesn't have to pay for anything. He just picks up his items and leave. How weird was that?! Wouldn't he get arrested? As Marcus discovers more about his child-like friend, he finds that he has a disease called Alzheimer's.. That explains everything.Charlie was a hero to Marcus. He was the reason of his sucess on the Raider's team. How could he repay him? Marcus decides to secretly bring Charlie to the EBU Honour Show after the Popovich family strictly disapproved of him going. Hey, Charlie deserves it, right? He had worked hard in his NFL career to earn this award. Is it worth the risk? If Marcus gets caught, he will - if not already, be known as a delinquent in his town. Not a very fresh start now, is it?
    • 3/5
      Gordon Kormon's POP attracted me throughout the book with the sport, football. 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..... Anyways, the settings of this book are similar to our world today; like the Three Alarm Park, it is similar to the rest of the parks here in Toronto. I feel that Korman wrote this book for teens because when I was reading the book, I felt like I was in the backgrounds of the places watching each part happening. The places in this book are very relaxing and fun but at the same time, it's also scary like the doctor's building. If I had a chance to be in the setting, I would want to go to the Three Alarm Park!
    • 5/5
      Have you ever moved to a new place in the middle of the summer vacation, and you don't know anybody. That's how Marcus Jordan feels.Marcus is the new kid, and his parents have just divorced. He stays with his mom, and they move into a new town. He doesn't know anybody.Marcus spends his time doing what he loves to do most: play football(he was the ex-QB at his old school). But since he doesn't know anybody, he just practices by himself-so that he can join the high school's perfect football team: the undefeatable Raiders.While he practices, a middle-aged man shows up, and starts to play with him. The man's name is Charlie Popovich. With Charlie's help, Marcus joins the Raiders. He and Charlie have also become good buddies.But Charlie is a little... strange. He just goes into a store, picks out whatever he needs, then he just walks out of the store without paying! And the storekeepers just chuckle and note it on a pad. When Marcus goes to his new high school and makes the team, he meets Charlie's son, Troy Popovich. Right from the start, the bicker and quarrel about EVERYTHING. About Troy's 'on again, off again' girlfriend, Alyssa, the team, and most of all, Charlie. To Troy, Marcus is just an annoying person that's always nosing around in his family's business, because Marcus finds out that Charlie is the great Charlie Popovich, better known as "King of Pop", one of the greatest football players to play in the NHLs. And Marcus also discovers a great secret about Charlie that his family is desperate to keep. But Marcus thinks that he is doing whatever it takes to help his friend-even if it includes getting busted with the police.My favourite character in POP would probably be Marcus. He has difficult times, just as any teenager would: Getting busted with the police, trying to fit in at a new school, and dealing with Troy. And all these problems are harder on him because he is shy. Really shy. But he overcomes his shyness and helps his friend, Charlie. Marcus is also really responsible for his own behavior. But sometimes, instead of just accepting responsibility for his actions, he takes all the blame. Like when he and Charlie accidentally broke a window, Marcus was ready to pay the fines, and accept any punishments that he might recieve. But what was Charlie doing? He ran away, leaving Marcus to take all the blame.THIS BOOK IS AWESOME! I SUGGEST THIS BOOK TO EVERYONE!
    • 4/5
      Korman does an excellent job combining football, a topic of high-interest to young adults, especially boys, and a thought-provoking topic like mental illness. The reader is drawn in by the mystery surrounding Charlie in the beginning of the novel and remains hooked through the discovery of his mental illness due to Marcus' strong connection.
    • 4/5
      I remember when I read my first Korman book,"Who is Bugs Potter?" and I've been a fan ever since. Pop did not disappoint either. I loved it as much as Schooled last year. He really know how to get to the heart and mind of a school aged boy and bring out their best along with a good message to the reader. I liked that sense of mystery at the beginning when you didn't know who Charlie was.
    • 4/5
      Kearsten says: Marcus is the new kid in a small town, and when he tries out for the high school football team's quarterback position, he's told in no uncertain terms that the spot is taken. Despite the team's less-than-enthusiastic welcome, Marcus joins the team in other roles, and keeps practicing tackling with a strange older man - clearly an ex-player - in the park.This would be a good pick for male teens needing a book for a report - it's engaging, the main character is appealing, and it is full of football and pranks.
    • 4/5
      Marcus is the new kid in a small town, and when he tries out for the high school football team's quarterback position, he's told in no uncertain terms that the spot is taken. Despite the team's less-than-enthusiastic welcome, Marcus joins the team in other roles, and keeps practicing tackling with a strange older man - clearly an ex-player - in the park.This would be a good pick for male teens needing a book for a report - it's engaging, the main character is appealing, and it is full of football and pranks.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      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 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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      Marcus is spending a lonely summer after moving halfway across the country. While practicing passes in the park one day, he is joined by Charlie, an eccentric middle-aged guy who teaches him a lot about tackling and being tackled. But Charlie's son Troy, the star quarterback of the high school team, resents Marcus for existing. And there's something wrong with Charlie....After a string of disappointing books, this is almost as good as Korman's heyday.