Pop!: Fizzy drinks. A trillion dollars. The adventure that ends with a bang.

Pop!: Fizzy drinks. A trillion dollars. The adventure that ends with a bang.

By Author / Illustrator

Mitch Johnson

Genre

Adventure

Age range(s)

9+

Publisher

Hachette Children's Group

ISBN

9781510107618

Format

Paperback / softback

Published

06-05-2021

Synopsis

An outrageous theft. A huge reward. Two friends on the run. An uproariously funny, action-packed new adventure about the power of courage, standing up for what's right, and fizzy drinks, from the award-winning author of Kick.

Queenie stares out at the ocean and dreams of a world beyond her small-town. She's about to get her wish...

When the priceless recipe to the world's most popular drink - thought to be lost forever - washes up at her feet, Queenie's life instantly changes. Everyone wants it, and with a $10 million bounty on her head, Queenie's soon on the run.

Pursued by bounty hunters, black-ops helicopters and angry mobs, Queenie's journey involves a trip to Area 51, a man-eating alligator and an unlikely new friend, Todd.

But being on the run also makes Queenie begin to see the world around her more clearly - a world in which a big corporation's excess has left the planet covered in its plastic bottles and waste. Suddenly, the home she always dreamed of escaping, and the ocean she grew up with and took for granted, don't seem so bad.

If Queenie and Todd can bring down the bad guys, maybe she can go back home and make a difference...

'Fizzes with adventure and great characters who pop from the page' - Peter Bunzl, bestselling author of Cogheart

'I read it all in one gulp!' - Ross Welford, bestselling author of Time Travelling with a Hamster

Reviews

Jacqueline

Queenie De La Cruz lives in a coastal backwater in the USA. One day a bottle washes up on the shore, and in it is the secret recipe for the world's most popular fizzy drink, Mac-Tonic. Finding the recipe, however, is the start of the problems for Queenie as people will not stop to get their hands on the recipe.

Queenie is taken hostage, escapes and is on the run with what seems like the entire world baying for her blood. They want that recipe back, because without it, the most popular drink cannot be made, and the Great Thirst begins. This is a million-dollar business and it is now in the hands of a young girl who has no idea what she has got herself into.

This is savage satire for children, brilliantly witty, exciting and thought provoking all at the same time. It contains elements of truth, particularly where the environmental issues are concerned, but it also covers the issues of sugar consumption and obesity and casual racism. All this, in a fast-paced adventure for children!

The surprise is that it is nothing like Kick, Mitch Johnson's last book, except in how good it is. It comes with a fantastic, eye catching cover by Alice Brereton that entirely complements the story (I loved the silver splash effect).

This would work very well as a class book for Year 6. There is so much to talk about and as the story unravels there are many different topics it could lend itself to - not least because it is an 'edge of your seat' adventure. And at its heart is the message that asks the question, what are we doing to our world?

352 pages / Ages 10+ / Reviewed by Jacqueline Harris, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 9+

 

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