The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

December 15, 2018
Ever since the accident that killed her mother and two sisters five years ago, Coyote Sunrise, now 12, and her father, Rodeo, have lived on the road in a converted yellow school bus and followed their whims. The only place they will not go is back to their hometown...until Coyote's grandma tells her the park where she, her mother, and her sisters buried a memory box is slated for destruction in just a few days. Now she must figure out how to steer her father back. In true road-trip-novel fashion, Coyote manages with the help of strangers: Lester, a jilted musician; Salvador and his mother, fleeing domestic abuse; and teenage Val, kicked out because she's gay. Gemeinhart crafts an enormously appealing protagonist in Coyote, who has mostly adapted to her unusual life but whose yearning for stability pokes out in small ways. Her narrative voice is rich and memorable, her withering distaste for Wild Watermelon slushes just one of many personality-defining quirks. But if Coyote is a living, breathing protagonist, the secondary cast is less so. That Coyote and her father are white makes Coyote's enlistment of Lester, an endlessly amiable black man, as a second driver an uncomfortable choice--a literal plot device, in fact. Latinx Salvador is more fully drawn, perhaps because he and Coyote interact as peers, but his mother is not. Like Lester, she and Val (who is white) fade into the background till needed.A good-hearted road trip stalls on thin secondary characterizations. (Fiction. 8-12)

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Starred review from December 15, 2018
Grades 3-6 *Starred Review* For the past five years, 12-year-old Coyote Sunrise and her father, Rodeo, have traveled all over the U.S. on a retired school bus converted into a home on wheels. Once upon a time, they lived in Washington State, but when her mother and two sisters died in an automobile accident, her father bought the bus, changed their names, and took off, determined to put painful memories behind them. But when Coyote learns that her former neighborhood park, where she and her mother and sisters buried a memory box, is about to be demolished, she knows she has to get back there and retrieve it. Knowing that a return to their old home is what Rodeo would call a "no-go," Coyote plots a way to get where she needs to go. Along the way, they pick up an assortment of passengers who become involved with Coyote's quest. Narrator Coyote is legendary: wise, thoughtful, and perceptive, she is an astute observer of human nature. Her voice is frank, authentic, and fresh as she shares her insights with her audience, whether the reader or another character. The narrative is beautifully paced and ranges easily from comic to bittersweet, and the other well-rounded characters also shine as they become part of Coyote's circle. Coyote is well-adjusted and, like her journey, refreshingly remarkable.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2019
Twelve-year-old Coyote and her father, Rodeo, travel the United States in a retrofitted school bus. Five years earlier, Coyote's mother and sisters were killed; now Rodeo refuses to talk about them. When Coyote learns a park where the family once buried a memory box will be demolished, she decides to retrieve the box--without letting Rodeo know that's why she wants to travel cross-country. Every mile inexorably brings Coyote closer to confronting her past, and its inevitable sadness, but Gemeinhart tempers her grief with triumphant growth.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2019
Twelve-year-old Coyote and her father, Rodeo, travel the United States in a retrofitted school bus, never looking back, never putting down roots. Readers gradually learn their backstory: five years earlier Coyote's mother and two sisters were killed, and, unable to deal with this loss, Rodeo refuses to speak their names or talk about their family's former life. Making her own exception to this rule, Coyote calls her grandmother every Sunday, which is how she learns that a park in her old neighborhood, where she and her mother and sisters once buried a memory box, is to be demolished. That news changes Coyote's complacency: she must retrieve that box, the only tangible item she has from her previous life, but without letting Rodeo know that's why she wants to travel all the way from Florida to Washington State. Her plan? Confess a hankering for the perfect pork chop sandwich in Montana and, once there, figure out the rest. Along the way, Coyote and Rodeo pick up a diverse group of individuals, each a fully developed character searching for a dream. Every mile of the road trip inexorably brings Coyote closer to confronting her past, and its inevitable sadness, but Gemeinhart avoids any sense of mawkishness. He tempers Coyote's grief with her triumphant growth from a girl whose sole purpose is keeping her father on an even keel to one who realizes that she alone must find, and even fight for, her own happiness. betty carter

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)