The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Okay, this book. I was pretty sold on it just from the blurb--a father-daughter duo traveling around the country in an old bus? Yes please, fulfill all my dreams. 

And the cover! See that cover? 

That there is Coyote sitting on the top of Yager, the school bus, with Ivan the cat. A few wispy leaves, a touch of red, and a fancy script?  

A GREAT COVER. 

(Whoever said you shouldn't judge a book by the cover was full of baloney. A good cover is pretty vital. That is one thing I have learned as a school librarian--no matter how good the book, kids will not read it if the cover is some cheesy thing from the 1990s.) 

So a great cover, a great premise, and it even delivers. 

SO GOOD. 

The first page sees Coyote in a gas station in bare feet, choosing her slushie flavor wisely, (watermelon is always a mistake) while her dad is filling up. Strong start with an interesting female lead with plenty of depth. 

Coyote's hippie father Rodeo operates under the belief that if the past was hard (and it was) the only way to deal is to pretend it never happened. So his life (and by default, Coyote's life as well) is one giant game of pretend nothing bad ever happened and that we don't miss anyone at all. 

Which worked fine when Coyote was 8. But now that she is verging on being a teenager, she is beginning to question that philosophy a little bit. After a phone call from her grandmother that lets Coyote know a childhood park with nostalgic, personal treasure is being torn up, she has to finagle her father from Florida to Washington state to reclaim her treasure in a weeks time without him really being aware of it. Because going "home" is a hard no from Rodeo. Too painful. Just like his rule about Coyote never calling him Daddy. 

Hard, absolute no. 

With the help of a fate and a few wayward strangers, Coyote gets him very, very close to the goal before he figures out what is going on. That is when things fall apart a little bit for Rodeo. 

But when things fall apart Coyote can finally put them back together again in the right order for the first time in five years. Because sometimes fathers need their daughters. Just like daughters need their fathers to be fathers, not just traveling companions. 

My only minor complaint about this book is that the people they picked up along the way seemed a little like someone was checking off a checklist. An African-American? Check. A single Hispanic mother and son? Check. A misunderstood lesbian? Check. A crazy goat? Check... (oh wait--that was just a bonus.) That is not to say these characters were not well developed. I loved all of the characters. And how they joined Coyote's story was well done. The identities just seemed a teensy bit too coincidental. 

Don't let that put you off the book though--It was so good! I laughed and I cried. And there was hope. And a goat. And a bus. 

Read it!