Popcorn Bob

By Maranke Rinck and Martijn Van Der Linden

Ellis loves popcorn. Who doesn't?

But one day her school goes on a healthy eating campaign and her dads decide to follow suit, banning all snack foods from their house, INCLUDING POPCORN. Unfair. Ellis has got to get around that edict, so one night she pops a bag of popcorn out back in the garage...and she's met with more than just her favorite salty snack. One kernel refuses to pop, and soon it's sprouted a face, arms, and legs! He introduces himself as Popcorn Bob, and he is NOT in a good mood. (Ever, really.) He's absolutely ravenous, and no amount of food keeps him from being hangry. Bob causes no end of chaos for Ellis, and she decides to rid herself of him once and for all, except...she actually starts to like him.

A chapter book for all ages, Popcorn Bob is a laugh-out-loud story about the power of friendship, and a perfect bowl of popcorn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chronicle Books Digital
• Release date: Apr 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781646140671

Maranke Rinck

Maranke Rinck is an award-winning children's book author who seeks to make reading and writing fun for the young and old. She often works with her husband, illustrator Martijn van der Linden. With their three children they live in a former butcher shop in Rotterdam. You will not find sausages and meatballs in their house anymore, though; the cold stores are full of manuscripts, drawings, and paintings.

Book preview

This is an Em Querido book

Published by Levine Querido

www.levinequerido.com ∙ [e-mail]

Levine Querido is distributed by Chronicle Books LLC

Text copyright © 2019 by Maranke Rinck

Illustrations copyright © 2019 by Martijn van der Linden

Translation copyright © 2021 by Nancy Forest-Flier

Originally published in the Netherlands by Querido

All rights reserved

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020937501

Hardcover ISBN 978-1-64614-040-4

Ebook ISBN 978-1-64614-067-1

Published in April 2021

Book design by Patrick Collins

The text type was set in Fresco Normal

Martijn van der Linden drew the illustrations for this book with a 2B pencil on 300 gsm paper while eating a mix of salty and sweet popcorn.

In the middle of the night, Farmer Bill sneaks outside.

He looks around once or twice.

Then he runs to the cornfield on tiptoe.

He pulls a little bottle from his pocket and twists off the cap.

Boy, does it stink!

It smells like rotten eggs.

And burnt plastic.

It sinks into the ground, where it fizzes and sputters.

Bill is pleased.

He holds his nose.

This stuff is super-illegal.

He had to pay a lot of money for it.

No wonder it stinks.

Grow, Bill whispers to his corn plants.

And so they do.

But Farmer Bill spoke too soon.

His big kernels won’t pop, no matter how long he heats them up.

A pot full of garbage! he cries angrily.

It’s totally useless!

So he throws the kernels in with the rest of his popcorn.

Then he gives it a good stir and sells the whole mess to the popcorn factory.

Just as he always does.

No one will ever know.

CHAPTER 1

POPCORN MAKES EVERYBODY HAPPY

These are my daddies and me.

The one with the robot shirt is