Coop Knows the Scoop

Gr 4-6–Summer is winding down in Windy Bottom, GA, and Cooper “Coop” Goodman and his friends can barely contain their curiosity when construction at the town playground uncovers a human skeleton buried under the rusty slide. Coop’s excitement is soon replaced by worry when his beloved Gramps is implicated in a long-unsolved crime. Convinced of Gramps’ innocence, Coop and his twin pals, Liberty and Justice, set out to solve the mystery and clear his name. Coop winds up suspended from school and grounded by his widowed mom, but, as the title suggests, he indeed “knows the scoop” by the end of the story. The mystery itself is intriguing, but it doesn’t take off until almost halfway through the book. Much of the earlier chapters are devoted to introducing Windy Bottom’s abundant quirky residents and offering plentiful details of the town’s quaintness, which may lose some readers’ attention. And while some of the clues are subtle and well placed, others are so obvious that it’s not clear how Coop manages to miss them.