Pop! by Jason Carter Eaton
Publisher: First Second
Genre: Childrens, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (40 pages)
Age Recommendation: 3+
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by AstilbeA quiet afternoon of blowing bubbles and popping them turns into a Planes, Trains, & Automobiles, (and Helicopters, and Fighter Jets, and Moon Shuttles)-style adventure, as our young protagonist Dewey struggles to pop that one bubble…The Bubble That Got Away.
With luminous, breathtaking art from Matt Rockefeller that evokes both epic adventure and the pleasure of a lazy summer day; and a lively, wry, and suspenseful text from veteran picture book writer Jason Carter Eaton, Pop! is a picture book that will delight readers from cover to cover.
The chase is on, and Dewey is determined to pop that final bubble.
This was such an imaginative story. I adored the fact that Dewey was so determined to hunt down and pop the final bubble he’d blown that he didn’t allow anything to stand in the way of him attempting to reach his goal. The plot twists that unfolded as he chased the bubble across town and to places even further away than that were truly delightful.
I would have liked to see a little more time spent explaining how Dewey was able to talk his way onto some of the buildings and flying contraptions that he used to figure out where his bubble was headed next. So much time was spent showing how the beginning of this tale happened that I would have liked to see the same attention paid once the plot sped up and the stakes grew higher. With that being said, this is a minor criticism of something I enjoyed quite a bit overall.
The ending was absolutely perfect. While I did suspect earlier on in the storyline that something like it was going to happen, I still had a wonderful time seeing if my prediction would come true. When I realized I was right, it only made me enjoy the final scene even more because of how happy I was that I thought of it ahead of time. Mr. Eaton didn’t leave many clues at all about how everything would end. Catching on them took some thinking, and I’m glad I paid such close attention to what he did share about the ending early on.
Pop! is something I’d especially recommend to anyone who has a vivid imagination or who wonders what it would be like to have one.
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