by Kaela Noel
In the book Coo, a girl is raised by a flock of pigeons who found her in an alleyway after a woman left her as a baby. Coo learned to speak pigeon while living in the dovecot on the top of an abandoned building. One day while Coo is playing, a hawk comes and breaks Burr’s wing after several unsuccessful attempts, with Coo in the way. Coo gains the courage to go into the human world and finds a nice old lady named Tully. Tully mends Burr’s broken wing and helps Coo stay calm from her isolated life. Coo experiences warmth, safety, and human relationships for the first time. But just as Coo is beginning to finally fit in, she learns the human world is more complex than she could have imagined.
This book is very fun and playful. But it’s also very realistic. In the beginning, a mother abandoned her child and in the real world, mothers who didn’t want a child are doing the same thing. It wasn’t surprising that the author added it in there for a young adult novel, as this is the time when we learn about the not so perfect parts of the world.
Also, another part I liked was the part where Coo meets her new friend and has so much fun with her. Coo also learns to speak the English language in such a short amount of time which is so cool. She is even thinking about going to school. Tully wants to adopt her and let her live with her legally. There are some complications, of course because Tully doesn’t sound believable to the police. Coo gets frustrated and wants to go back to her pigeon family but Tully promises to her that they will be able to see them every day to feed them.
I didn’t like the parts where the police were involved because they thought that Billy was a crackhead and didn’t believe her. I actually wanted them not to believe her because I didn’t want Coo to be separated from her flock and for her to not be happy. Sometimes police don’t really help people if they don’t feel like it in some parts of the world. That was very surprising for me because even if this book is fictional, and in most books many characters are mean and ignorant, I just want to punch them very hard in the face.
Overall, I really liked this book and I think that all middle schoolers should read it for the life lessons taught and the stories learnt. It’s a very fun and exciting book to read, especially because there is a plot twist every chapter so you never know what’s going to happen next. I loved getting lost in Coo’s world. I think Coo is something that people of all ages can enjoy and learn from, and I hope that’s exactly what happens. It’s a very good book and I liked it very much.