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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cbbb - The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise is maybe the best book I've ever read, and I am a VERY picky reader! Dan Geimenhart, the author, has writing that is so compelling! Every chapter leaves you crying out for more, and every plot twist (and believe me, there are a lot) has you slack-jawed. The author begins our story telling us about a girl and her father, the only remnants, however shattered, of a once whole family. After the mother and other two sisters died in a car crash, the father and daughter fled their home and started a new life on a renovated school bus. They have been living there for five years, and they are happy- or at least satisfied- with this lifestyle until the girl, Coyote, hears that a forest that holds a memory box of hers is being destroyed. She has to get to the forest and find the box before it is dug up and destroyed! Her father will absolutely, no way no how, take her there, though, so how will she get there? The answer is found with Salvador, Esperanza, Concepcion, Lester, Tammy, Ivan, and Gladys. I liked how there are many funny parts in the book and many heart-throbbing parts. I did not like how to book wasn't long enough- there was not a 'ten years later' section where we get to see all the characters again, doing well. Thank you Dan Geimenhart for writing this!

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.)