Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2018)

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.

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 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)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

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.)