Member Reviews

Dan Gemeinhart’s emotional sequel did not disappoint! Coyote embarks on a journey to spread her mom’s ashes… without knowing where, or how. Looking for a missing book with answers; finding a lot more along the way.

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Sequels never seem to live up to the hype of the first book...kind of what I was thinking before I read Coyote Lost and Found. But, I was so wrong! It is a standalone book, although you really should read The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise!

Coyote and her dad have had their fair share of grief over the last several years. Coyote's mom died and both she and her dad are still stricken with grief. The pair finally settle down, but once again take to the road to spread her mom's ashes. The only catch is that her mom wanted them scattered in a particular place and Coyote has lost the book in which the directions were given.

Coyote is a breath of fresh air, with her strong voice. She is an independent, strong willed, and is s great female lead. While Coyote Lost and Found does deal with the sad topic of death, I found it to be much more. It is witty, heartwarming, and all about new beginnings. What an incredible book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for the opportunity to read this book!

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My eyes are now dehydrated from the tears I've cried over the course of this book, but my heart is full.

This book feels like it was written for me and only me, and I think that's the beauty of Dan Gemeinhart's writing. I felt SEEN. And it hurt a lot, but this book has helped me grow, just like Coyote herself. I lost my mother too, much MUCH too soon, and I haven't yet felt able to help ease some of the pain her loss has left on my heart. This book, this amazing book intended for middle schoolers, has helped me see a pathway to begin.

Thank you, Mr. Gemeinhart. I will recommend this book to all my students and as many staff as I can, too. I recommend everyone read Coyote and Rodeo's journeys. (I would love to read an adult novel from Rodeo's perspective, too.....)

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I've missed these characters! I loved spending more time with Coyote and Rodeo and getting to know the new friends they meet on their latest road trip. This sequel lets us see how Coyote is doing in her new, more traditional life (okay, not but feeling like a bit of a misfit) and then takes us on a journey across the US to spread her mom's ashes. Like the first books, the journey is full of adventures, catastrophes, and charming interactions with strangers and provides an opportunity for growth, reflection, and bonding between father and daughter. I highly recommend this book (and the first one) to fans of touching realistic fiction that will break your heart and then stitch it back together.

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Nothing like DG to rip at my heartstrings and leave me a blubbering mess!!! I loved Coyote Sunrise and was so excited that Coyote was back!

In the first of the series we find Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, floating through life in the aftermath of the death of their wife/mom and daughters/sisters. Or rather, I should say bumping through life on a ratty old school bus.

Now, Coyote is 13 and the Covid pandemic has just begun. And no later does school get cancelled that she finds a box of ashes in the bus, ones that her father had kept hidden from her. And so begins their journey of scattering those ashes where her mother wanted…. except that location is unknown because it’s hidden in a book that Coyote got rid of in a thrift store across the country…

It’s witty, funny, sarcastic, sad, heartwarming, and redemptive all at the same time. Highly recommend!

Thanks to NetGalley for the early read!

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This perfect was the perfect sequel to The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise! I loved how it picked up where the last one left off. This was a long awaited sequel and I am so glad I was able to learn more about the lives of Coyote and her dad.

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My daughter, 12, loved the first book in this series, The Remarkable Journey of Sunrise Coyote! This one lived up to the first and my daughter enjoyed it just as much!

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Coyote thought that staying in one place after her adventures in The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise would be okay, but being new to middle school in the 8th grade is hard. She does have one sort-of friend, and the school librarian is nice ("There's a limit to how bad a school can be if it's got a library. That's just a fact."). While hanging out in Yager, the van they lived in for sevearl years, Coyote finds a box containing her mother's ashes. She asks her father, Rodeo, about it, and he tells her that he hasn't had the heart to scatter them yet. Both her and her mother had written down where they wanted their cremains scattered in a copy of Mary Oliver's Red Bird, but Coyote is horrified to realize that she sold the book when they were traveling. When COVID shuts down her school for three weeks, she talks Rodeo into hitting the road. She doesn't tell him that she lost the book, but plots a course to revisit the shops where she might have left it during a small window of time. Of course, they are all over the US, but since Rodeo is very philisophical, he buys into the idea that the mother wanted the process to be a journey. Salvador, whom they met on their last trip, is invited along, but so is Candace, a neighbor whom Coyote likes, up to the point where she suspects the woman might be more than a friend to her father. Along the way, the group picks up Wally, a retired office worker who wants to travel but doesn't want to drive. His cultural background is Thai, and there is a racial incident because he is Asian and people are upset about COVID that mirrors so many of the horrible incidents that occurred during that time. The restaurants are only doing take out because of the pandemic, but the thrift stores are open. The book doesn't surface, and Coyote becomes more and more desperate. In Pittsburgh, the store is closed, so after some bowling, Coyote and Salvadore sneak out to try to break into the store. Coyote manages to break her arm, but the police and the store owner are kind about it after Rodeo pays for the broken screen door. Eventually, Coyote has to tell her father the truth about the book and the lack of plans for an exact place to scatter the ashes, and they realize that the picture of the book they've been referencing is actually of the very book that Rodeo had, and they manage to drive to the thrift store and talk to the owner. He's just given the book to a friend, but Doreen still has the book. They even ask her to continue back to the west coast to scatter the ashes over the family's favorite pond. While the trip doesn't go smoothly, it is an adventure.
Strengths: It was interesting to see the pandemic portrayed in a book that wasn't ABOUT the pandemic. Life did go on in a limited way, so having Coyote on her journey during that time made sense. Candance was a reasonable addition, and Coyote's attitude toward her was very realistic; she liked her, but also resented her; she wanted to be kind, but struggled with actually acting that way. Coyote and Salvadore have to look at their relationship again as both have gotten older, and Wally and Doreen are reasonable travel companions. I liked the inclusion of books, and was glad to see that Coyote was a big reader. I was also glad that Yager didn't have any mechanical problems; during the pandemic, it might have been difficult to get it fixed!
Weaknesses: During the pandemic, our thrift stores and bowling alleys were all closed, so that seemed unusual. Also, having had to deal with three sets of cremains recently, I would imagine that the ashes would have been delivered in a plastic bag, and it would be very odd for Rodeo to pour them out of the bag into a box.
What I really think: This is a great choice for readers who want to know what happened to Coyote and her father, for fans of Mary Oliver, or readers who enjoyed Lawrence's Fire on Headless Mountain or Burnham's The Infinite Questions of Dottie Bing.

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Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan for providing an e-ARC of this book! This book will be published 3/5/24!

Coyote and Rodeo return for another epic adventure filled with grief, hope, and discovery. It has been about a year since the events of The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise, and in the wake of everything, Coyote has started to find a new “normal.” (If anything is ever normal.) She has a house, a school, and a father with a job…who is even going to therapy? Though things seem fine, when Coyote discovers a hidden box with her mother’s ashes, she quickly realizes that there is much more to the “after” when it comes to coping with her loss. A small lie snowballs into a much larger problem and the question remains: will Coyote and Rodeo find what they are looking for?
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This story was so unexpected—I honestly did not think there would be a sequel and was a little apprehensive. However, the book hit me like falling from a tall window face-first onto a desk; it included so much heart & truth that left me absolutely sobbing. I had an emotional black-eye through almost every chapter. While this is still a book about dealing with the unimaginable, Gemeinhart also tackles the aftermath of the pandemic. This is the first story that I’ve read since the pandemic that I feel truly captured how my students reacted to everything—the complicated emotions that surfaced in the face of a global crisis. With that, the story still stays true to Coyote & Rodeo’s voices. If you haven’t picked up the first, you have a lot of reading to do—this is a must read!

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The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise was my favorite read of 2019 and I recommend it to any student still who says they don't know what to read (I'm a middle school librarian). I squealed out loud when I ran across the sequel on NetGalley. This book did not disappoint and it was just as great as the first one! It the second story, Coyote discovers her mother's ashes hidden on the bus, it starts a whole new adventure on another road trip to find the location to scatter her ashes. It's a wonderful story of friendship, family, grief, and gratitude.

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I was so excited when I found out that this sequel was coming. I love, love these characters, and the book picked up right where we left them. A must read.

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“And maybe, way down in the middle, it was really about finding. Finding ashes and finding books and finding friends and finding where you belong and finding clues and finding wings and finding a way and then, at the end, finding peace.”

Coyote Lost and Found is the sequel I didn’t know I needed…

I read Coyote Sunrise last summer and absolutely adored it. So when I found out the author had written a second book featuring Coyote, her eccentric dad and the bus they lived in for years, I headed right to NetGalley to see if I could request an early copy.

For five years after a tragic loss Coyote and her dad lived on the road in a school bus. Now, a year after living a somewhat normal life, they are on another adventure in their bus. This time, Coyote finds a box of her mom’s ashes that her dad had kept hidden. He has been putting off reading a note she left them in a poetry book, telling him her wishes and where she wants her ashes scattered. However of course it’s not as simple as looking in the book….it’s misplaced and they are on another adventure to find it….

I so enjoyed being back in Coyote’s world. A heartwarming story, just like the first one. 🩷

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher Macmillian Children's Publishing Group for an early copy in exchange for an honest review. Coyote Lost and Found publishes on March 5, 2024.

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I appreciated the continuation of Coyote’s story though nothing compares to the first book. That being said, it was an enjoyable read that tackles the topic of grief and growth in a wonderful way.

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The best thing about this book is that it teaches kids in the kindest, gentlest way, how to hold all their conflicting feelings. Their grief, their joy, their fear, their excitement. I was stunned by this book, and so grateful that it exists. It was every bit as deeply moving as the first Coyote book, and I am so excited to purchase a copy for my daughter!

I received an arc from NetGalley, but all enthusiastic opinions are my own!

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Oh, my heart. I just loved getting on the bus again with Coyote and friends. It was a wonderful ride that included my favorite poet, Mary Oliver.

If you read the first Coyote story, what are you waiting for?

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading more about Coyote. She’s grown a bit, but still finds a couple spots of trouble with her friend. This novel tackles grief in a beautiful and approachable way. Highly recommend!

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The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise was one of my favorite books of 2019 and probably one of the books I most recommend to my students. I was thrilled to find out there was a sequel. I loved the return of such lovable and quirky characters but wish the author had chosen a different trope. For this book. Coyote once again takes her father on an adventure across the US while hiding a secret from him. This time she has lost the poetry book where her mother had written when she wanted her ashes scattered. It was frustrating that Coyote had not learned the lesson in the first book about being honest with her father and instead she continued to be dishonest causing further complications and lies. I did appreciate that they included the pandemic in the story but thought it would play a bigger role in the conflict. Overall, while an enjoyable read, it sadly did not meet the high expectations set forth by the original.

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Ugh, Dan Gemeinhart does it again! I cried and laughed and walked away a better person, thanks to Coyote and another unlikely journey. Coyote Lost and Found was full of special reflections on life and death and the meaning of it all. An important book for readers of all walks of life.

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Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read the ARC for this book. This book was just as good as the first one. Coyote continues to bring interesting people into her life while wrestling with some big issues. It made me cry and laugh and I will be thinking about it for a long time after reading it.

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Dan Gemeinhart did it again! A wonderful follow-up to The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. A heartwarming tale of a girl and her father doing their best with what life throws at them. Set a year apart from the last book we get to see what Coyote has been up to and what adventures she will have again.

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