With Just One Wing

Coretta Scott King Honor winner Brenda Woods’ s poignant, heartfelt story of an adopted boy and the bird he rescues

Everyone expects Coop to be musical like his beloved parents, but he’ s not. That’ s one of the few things he finds awkward about being adopted— well, that and the fact that he sometimes wonders why his birth mother didn’ t love him enough to keep him. This summer, he’ s stuck at home with a broken arm after falling out of a tree trying to get a closer peek at a mockingbird nest. After the eggs in the nest hatch and the fledglings fly away, he and his friend Zandi notice that one of them stays behind. Taking a closer look, they realize the bird only has one wing. Since it won’ t survive in the wild, they adopt it and name it Hop, and then learn everything they can about birds so they can care for Hop properly. Unfortunately, when a hawk injures Hop, the vet says it’ s illegal to keep mockingbirds as pets. Faced with a difficult decision about surrendering his beloved little bird to a bird sanctuary, Coop starts thinking about his birth mother’ s motivation in a new light.