Twelve-year-old Coyote and her father rush to Poplin Springs, Washington, in their old school bus to save a memory box buried in a park that will soon be demolished. - (Baker & Taylor)

Living on the road in an old school bus with her dad after losing her mother and sisters, 12-year-old Coyote devises an elaborate plan to convince her father to make a first trip home to Washington state in five years, a journey marked by an eclectic group of passengers they meet along the way. Simultaneous eBook. - (Baker & Taylor)

Twelve-year-old Coyote and her father rush to Poplin Springs, Washington, in their old school bus save a memory box buried in a park that will soon be demolished. - (Baker & Taylor)

"Sometimes a story comes along that just plain makes you want to hug the world. The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise is Dan Gemeinhart’s finest book yet — and that’s saying something. Your heart needs this joyful miracle of a book." —Katherine Applegate, acclaimed author of The One and Only Ivan and Wishtree

A 2020 ILA Teachers’ Choice
A 2019 Parents' Choice Award Gold Medal Winner
Winner of the 2019 CYBILS Award for Middle Grade Fiction
An Amazon Top 20 Children's Book of 2019
A Junior Library Guild Selection

Five years.

That's how long Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have lived on the road in an old school bus, criss-crossing the nation.

It's also how long ago Coyote lost her mom and two sisters in a car crash.

Coyote hasn’t been home in all that time, but when she learns that the park in her old neighborhood is being demolished—the very same park where she, her mom, and her sisters buried a treasured memory box—she devises an elaborate plan to get her dad to drive 3,600 miles back to Washington state in four days...without him realizing it.

Along the way, they'll pick up a strange crew of misfit travelers. Lester has a lady love to meet. Salvador and his mom are looking to start over. Val needs a safe place to be herself. And then there's Gladys...

Over the course of thousands of miles, Coyote will learn that going home can sometimes be the hardest journey of all...but that with friends by her side, she just might be able to turn her “once upon a time” into a “happily ever after.”

This title has common core connections.

Dan Gemeinhart is a former elementary-school teacher-librarian and lifelong book nerd. He lives with his wife and three daughters in a small town in Washington State. He's the author of some other books, too: The Honest Truth, Some Kind of Courage, Scar Island, and Good Dog. If he ever meets you, he'd love to talk about books with you. - (McMillan Palgrave)

Booklist Reviews

*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. Grades 3-6. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

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 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Horn Book Magazine Reviews

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 January/February 2019 p 90 Copyright 2018 Horn Book Magazine Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

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 Coyo te 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) Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly Reviews

In this poignant, action-packed adventure, 12-year-old Coyote must hoodwink her father, Rodeo, into returning home to Washington State after years of itinerant life on a school bus. A tragic car accident killed Coyote's mother and sisters five years before, compelling Rodeo and Coyote to adopt new names and traverse the country telling escapist stories, until Coyote learns from her grandmother that the neighborhood park where she and her mother and sisters buried a precious memory box faces imminent demolition. Gemeinhart (Good Dog) layers grief and upended caretaking into the father-daughter relationship, which heightens as Coyote schemes to get back home from Florida in just a few days to dig up the box—to help, she recruits and befriends a memorable and motley crew of travelers. The narrative leaves unanswered questions about the duo's time on the road (Coyote's schooling, for example), but sincere friendships, inventive obstacles, and emotional depth propel the cross-country trip as the winning protagonist stakes a claim for her future by reclaiming the past. Ages 9–12. Agents: Pam Victorio and Bob Diforio, D4EO Literary Agency. (Jan.)