Pop

Pop by Gordan Korman (2009) is a young adult sports novel that chronicles a high school football player’s relationship with a former NFL star who has chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Through the relationships of the book, the story explores Caregiving as a Crucible of Empathy, How Legacy Shapes Identity, and The Importance of Direct Experience as a Source of Knowledge. Pop received positive reviews and was shortlisted in the fiction category of the OLA Red Maple awards in 2011. Gordon Korman is a New York Times bestselling Canadian author of over 100 books for young readers, which have sold over 30 million copies worldwide. He published his debut novel, This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall, at age 14, and he was a recipient of the Air Canada Award for promising Canadian authors at age 17. His works include the bestselling Masterminds series (Book 1: Masterminds) as well as titles in the popular 39 Clues series (Book 1: The Maze of Bones, penned by Rick Riordan). Korman received his degree in film-writing from New York University, and he currently lives in Long Island, where he writes full time.

This guide is based on the 2019 Balzer + Bray revised paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of illness and death, and discussion of suicide.

Plot Summary

Pop opens shortly after teenager Marcus Jordan moves to a new state with his mom. With football tryouts for his new school approaching, Marcus practices at a local park every day, hoping to make quarterback. One afternoon, an older gentleman named Charlie joins him, and Marcus is amazed at Charlie’s football skills, particularly his tackles. When a throw sends the football through a car window, Charlie takes off, leaving Marcus to own up for the mistake and to wonder what kind of adult shirks responsibility like that.

At tryouts, the current quarterback, Troy, is adamant that the team doesn’t want new players after their perfect season the year before. Convinced by the head cheerleader, the coach lets Marcus tryout anyway. While Marcus is an amazing thrower, he chokes when he’s faced with being tackled, so the coach makes him backup quarterback to Troy. Eager to prove he’s worthy of being on the team, Marcus continues to practice at the park with Charlie. Though Charlie seems strangely forgetful, Marcus brushes this off because Charlie’s fierce style of play helps Marcus get more comfortable with physical contact.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Marcus, Charlie is Troy’s father and a former NFL player who now has CTE as a result of too many concussions during his career. At home, Charlie’s condition puts his family (Troy, his sister Chelsea, and their mom) under enormous stress as they try to keep him safe while not disrupting his quality of life. In particular, Charlie’s disease affects Troy because football was once something father and son shared. Since the disease makes Charlie believe he’s 16 years old, he no longer feels like a father to Troy. In addition, Troy fears developing CTE as a result of his own time playing football.

When the owner of the car with the broken window finally gets in touch, he rants at Marcus for being an irresponsible kid. Charlie overhears and plots a prank to surround the man’s extermination shop with sugar to attract bugs. Marcus feels bad about doing so, but he goes along with it because it’s nice to have Charlie in his corner. The prank is a huge success, and while the exterminator doesn’t press charges because he wants to show the town he can get rid of bugs, he vows to do so if he ever thinks Marcus has vandalized his shop again.

At school, the head cheerleader (formerly Troy’s girlfriend) takes a liking to Marcus, at least partly to make Troy jealous. She invites him to a party at one of the football player’s houses, where the two make out until Troy interrupts, rearing for a fight. Chelsea arrives, panicked, to tell Troy that Charlie is missing. At once, Marcus realizes there’s something wrong with Charlie. He offers to help search, which enrages Troy even more. Still, Marcus goes to the park, where he finds Charlie waiting for him to practice. Marcus manages to talk Charlie into going home. Though Charlie isn’t sure where his home is, Marcus gets him there and then goes home to read everything he can about CTE.

Armed with an understanding of Charlie’s condition, Marcus talks to Chelsea, who thanks Marcus for bringing Charlie home but otherwise tells him to stay out of their business. He doesn’t know what their lives are like, and the family wants to keep Charlie’s condition a secret. Meanwhile, while Charlie was wandering, he toilet papered the exterminator’s store, and this time, the man presses charges on Marcus. Unwilling to turn Charlie in for the act of vandalism, Marcus schedules a hearing. While at his mom’s work, Marcus sees old images of the town and realizes that Charlie thinks of the place as it used to be, not as it is now. Marcus also works out that Charlie views him as his high school best friend, whom Marcus identifies as a man named James McTavish.

Marcus tracks McTavish to a nearby town and meets with the man to explain Charlie’s situation and how it has affected him. McTavish offers to help Marcus stay out of trouble with the law. He suggests that Marcus tell the truth about Charlie because keeping the condition a secret could be harmful for Charlie and those around him. McTavish also mentions that Charlie will be inducted into his college’s athletic hall of fame at a ceremony in two weeks. Charlie’s family, wondering how they could have missed this news, discovers all Charlie’s mail stuffed under their porch swing. They finally confirm that the ceremony is real but decide Charlie can’t go, for his own safety.

Marcus doesn’t agree with Charlie’s family about the ceremony. Though it means missing the most important football game of the season, Marcus convinces McTavish to bring Charlie to the ceremony. In the car, Charlie and McTavish reminisce about their high school days, including a story in which Charlie released a hawk that was a rival team’s mascot hawk. At the ceremony, Charlie is pulled into the excitement of the day and truly seems to understand why he’s there. Meanwhile at home, Charlie’s family is frantic about his disappearance. Since Marcus helped find Charlie last time, Chelsea calls him, only to get no answer. Suspicious, she checks a livestream of the football game where the ceremony will take place and sees Charlie accept his induction. Though she’s angry about what Marcus did, she realizes it was the right thing for Charlie.

Through a coordinated police effort, the cops track down Marcus and Charlie to make sure Charlie gets home. Partway through the drive, the cops get a call from Marcus’s football game. Troy is hurt, and they need Marcus to play quarterback. The police rush Marcus home, where he’s thrown into the game, only to get knocked out in a tackle. When Marcus wakes, he feels dizzy. Troy urges Marcus not to play and finishes out the game, leading the team to victory. The next day, Troy quits football, making Marcus quarterback.

In the following weeks, Charlie’s family decides he needs to go to a nursing home for his own safety. Marcus accompanies them to look at the place, where he is terrified by some of the vacant stares on the residents’ faces. At the idea of living there, Charlie becomes scared and strangely lucid. Afterwards, Charlie forgets about the place, but his mood is subdued. At Marcus’s last football game, Troy and Charlie are in the stands. As Marcus gets ready to throw the final ball, he notices Charlie climbing the bleachers to their narrow top platform and sees that a hawk is perched there. Marcus sprints off the field and up the stairs, yelling for Charlie to stop. Charlie looks at Marcus with an understanding expression. Then, he lunges for the hawk and falls off the back of the bleachers.

The impact of the fall kills Charlie instantly. His funeral has a massive turnout of locals, school friends, and even NFL players. As people reminisce and discuss Charlie’s tragic end, Marcus wonders if Charlie knew what he was doing and did it on purpose. Troy and his ex-girlfriend get back together. Marcus and Troy discuss Charlie and his love for football, ending the conversation as friends. After leaving the funeral, Marcus returns to the park where he first met Charlie to say a final goodbye.