It’s got all the elements of a good whodunnit: a scandal, a quirky cast of local characters, smart dialogue, fleshed out characters with good backstories that make just about everyone a suspect, and an impending sense of danger that you just know is going to explode when you get these elements mixed together. Written in the first person from Coop’s point of view, I could not put this book down. When Gramps falls under suspicion – they always suspect the spouse, right? – Coop enlists his best friends, twin siblings Liberty and Justice, to help him search for clues and exonerate Gramps. After some DNA testing, the skeleton is revealed to be Coop’s grandmother, Tabby, whom everyone thought left Gramps years ago, when Coop’s dad was little more than a baby. It’s small town life, where everyone knows one another, and it’s pretty idyllic, until the morning a skeleton is discovered buried at the playground. His dad, a Marine, died in action, and his Gramps is the retired town doctor. Cooper Goodman – call him Coop, please! – lives with his mom and grandfather in Georgia, where he helps out in his mom’s bookstore/coffee shop when he’s not in school. That’s how good this middle grade mystery is. I pulled Coop Knows the Scoop off my TBR yesterday morning, and I finished it this morning. 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.Coop Knows the Scoop, by Taryn Souders, (July 2020, Sourcebooks Young Readers), $7.99, ISBN: 9781492640189 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. The mystery itself is intriguing, but it doesn’t take off until almost halfway through the book.
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. Convinced of Gramps’ innocence, Coop and his twin pals, Liberty and Justice, set out to solve the mystery and clear his name. Coop’s excitement is soon replaced by worry when his beloved Gramps is implicated in a long-unsolved crime.
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.
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