Pop
by Gordon Korman
Pop by Gordon Korman is an excellent book about High School football and growing up. It’s ideal for YA readers, especially football loving boys.
Marcus Jordan is new in town and wants to play quarterback on the football team. His reception couldn’t have been cooler. Just off their perfect championship season, and led by star quarterback Troy Popovich, no one on the team offers any sort of welcome to the new kid in town. And it seems like more than just a cold shoulder, its an all out campaign to drive him from the team, lead by Troy, the golden boy who led the team to all its victories the prior year. When Marcus does get to take some snaps in practice, the offensive line dissolves and the defense thunders in unhindered. Panicked, Marcus is unable to connect with his passing.
After practice, Marcus heads to the park to practice his throwing at targets he sets up. Tossing one long he sees a middle-aged man suddenly sprint for the pass and make an amazing catch. They begin playing together and the older man surprisingly gives Marcus a bone crunching tackle. Furious, he protests, but he’s rebuffed and the tackling continues. The older man encourages Marcus to have at him, as well. The afternoon, crazy and intense, becomes a turning point for Marcus. He begins to enjoy the hard hitting style of football the older man, Charlie, likes to play. It transforms his game, no longer fearing a tackle, but preferring to deliver the bone crushing pop to his opponent, instead.
This is the beginning of a very unusual friendship with the older man. Marcus can’t quite figure out why Charlie calls him Mac, as though he were someone else. He begins to wonder if Charlie thinks he is still sixteen. Charlie’s behavior is sometimes completely erratic and constantly puzzling to Marcus. In time, though, Marcus begins to unravel the puzzle of who Charlie really is, exposing family secrets along the way.
I have to say I loved this book. There is a great deal more than only football that gets covered in these pages. Marcus’ rivalry with the quarterback Troy is at the center of much of it, complicated by the interest in Marcus that Troy’s ex-girlfriend displays. And there is Charlie, the teen-aged kid in a man’s body, and the discoveries that Marcus makes about his past and the reasons behind his current condition. The writing is straight to the point, fast moving, and full of emotional punches without any melodrama.
I have one reservation for this book. Some sites indicate that kids 9-12 would be interested in it, but the sexual content level should make it higher than that, maybe 14 or older. It’s too bad, too. There is one incident, really just some language, in an early chapter and there is a strong amount of sexual tension between Marcus and Alyssa, the cheerleader. As the book progresses, this isn’t as overtly portrayed, yet nevertheless exists and continues to work as a strong driver to some plot elements. Had the tone of the first few chapters been at the same level as the rest of the book, I wouldn’t question the appropriateness for younger readers. I do think that Korman could have easily changed the early comment from his book and not lost any of the plot driver of the relationship between Marcus and Alyssa.
