Coop for Keeps

Coop, a sweet but edgy old dachshund, has been newly adopted into a family that includes Mom Jess, son Zach, younger daughter Emma and cat Lucinda. The family adopted Coop when his previous owner, Mike, died. Mike was Zach and Emma’s grandfather. Many changes have taken place in the family in a short time. Mike – grandfather and father – has died, and the kids’ father has left the family permanently. Jess has moved them all into an old house in a different town and is now running Heavenly Haven, a small inn as a way to support them. This means strangers will be staying in the house, and Zach is particularly angry about this new situation. On top of that, Zach is getting bullied at school, and a murder of crows has just moved into the neighbourhood and is making Coop uncomfortable. As the story opens, Zach’s bike is vandalized by the bullies who chase Zach home from school, a very mysterious and silent man, Pete, rents an upstairs room and shed for a month, and the crows take up residence in the yard. What else can go wrong?

Told from Coop’s point of view, this story resonates with feeling and emotion as Coop narrates. Through Coop’s perspective, readers see Zach trying to deal with the bullies on his own while hiding his damaged bike and hurt in order to protect his mother. Readers also feel Zach’s anger and unease as Pete, a man of many mysteries, takes up residence in the upstairs bedroom and begins using a chainsaw in the shed out back. What is he doing in there? Is he a murderer, just waiting to kill them all in their beds one night? As the family slowly gets to know Pete a bit, Zach begins to pay attention to the crows. He feeds them and trains them to come, using a whistle Pete has given him. Each crow comes to a different whistle call, and Zach grows attached to them. One day, the bullies come and kill one of the crows, a happening that sets things in motion as Zach tries to find a way to stand up to the bullies and Coop tries to protect his new family.

Coop for Keeps is a wonderful story about family, love and growing together through life’s challenges. Award-winning author Larry Verstraete does a fantastic job of weaving the themes of loss and grief, bullying, and knowledge of crows into a moving yet often times funny story. At the end, this reader needed time to reflect on all of the themes and how they came together in such a seamless way. I especially enjoyed learning about crows and how intelligent they are. I love how the crows help Zach at the end of the story, and how Zach and Coop grow closer as Zach grows within himself. Coop for Keeps is the second story about Coop, the first being >a href="www.cmreviews.ca/node/629"> Coop the Great.