The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise, published in 2019, is written by author Dan Gemeinhart. Gemeinhart has written several other middle grade novels, and like the father in the story, he and his wife have three daughters and they live in the state of Washington. A former librarian and schoolteacher, Gemeinhart loves books as much as most of the characters in this novel. The book received several awards, including the Amazon #1 Best Children’s Book of 2019, the 2019 Cybil’s Award for Best Mid-Grade Fiction, and a 2019 Parents’ Choice Award Gold Medal Winner. The book is narrated by a 12-year-old precocious girl named Coyote who is traveling randomly and endlessly across the country in an old school bus with her father, Rodeo. Traveling is their way of dealing with the tragic loss of her mother and two sisters five years before, a loss that is never discussed. A phone conversation with her grandmother sends Coyote on a determined, immediate cross-country quest that she must trick her father into making. Along the way she draws in several strangers who become fellow travelers, sharing their adventures as she fulfills her mission. Readers may note that there is one reference to Coyote’s father drinking beer.

Plot Summary

Coyote Sunrise is a 12-year-old girl and narrator, who begins the story about how she met her pet cat. Coyote’s witty and determined personality is revealed as she conspires with two young boys to sneak a kitten onto Yager, the old school bus that has been her home for the past five years. She names the cat Ivan after the title of her favorite book, The One and Only Ivan. She reveals a great deal about their lifestyle in her exchange with another tween, Fiona, she meets in an RV park. Fiona’s mother refuses to allow her daughter to visit Coyote’s bus when she sees Coyote’s father, shaggy and shirtless Rodeo, sitting atop a picnic table.

During her regularly scheduled Saturday phone conversation with her grandmother, Coyote learns that a park in her former hometown, Poplin Springs, Washington, is to be bulldozed the following Wednesday. Eventually the reader learns that Coyote buried a memory box there with her mother and two sisters shortly before they were killed in an auto accident. Coyote decides she must return to the park and rescue the memory box. This is problematic for two reasons: her father has vowed never to return to their old home, and they are currently in Florida. Without telling him about the box, Coyote persuades her father to begin driving west, telling him she wants a pork chop sandwich from a shop in Montana.

Before heading out, Coyote grabs dinner at a diner as she wrestles with how to get her father to drive during all his waking hours. Serendipitously, in the next booth, she hears a young Black man, Lester, talking to his girlfriend, Tammy, in Boise, Idaho. He tells her he is trying to get to her as quickly as possible, but he cannot afford a bus ticket. Coyote sits down in the booth with Lester, introduces herself, and asks if he has a driver’s license. After persuading him to join them in Yager, Coyote persuades her father. Neither of the men know about the memory box or their true destination.

After driving for some time, Rodeo and Lester stop for gas. While the men argue over whether a map or phone provide better navigation, Coyote slips out to get more food from the gas station. Rodeo and Lester assume Coyote is in her “bedroom” in the back portion of the bus and drive away from the gas station before she returns. When she realizes they left, she stands on the parking lot crying. Trying to escape from a middle-aged woman who is a would-be rescuer, Coyote hides out in the ladies’ room. A tapping on the door comes from a Latino boy named Salvador. He says he can help her, and tells her to go into the men’s restroom, crawl out the window above the sink, and go to where his mother is sitting in an old car in the parking lot. Salvador and his mother, Esperanza Vega, drive to the exit of the interstate highway and wait for Yager to return. Coyote learns they are on their way to Saint Louis, but their car barely works. When the bus returns, she persuades her father and the Vegas that they should ride in the bus, which is going through Saint Louis anyway.

As they travel, Coyote and Salvador have the first of many intense conversations, each prying into the other’s past and revealing their hopes. There are several emotional ups and downs, as when everyone joins in a favorite song sung by Rodeo. When it ends, despair descends upon Coyote, who wonders why all of life cannot be sustained bliss.

En route to Saint Louis, Esperanza contacts her sister Concepción, who reveals she is now in Michigan. Rodeo immediately volunteers to drive there, which worries Coyote. She does not want to abandon Salvador but fears she will miss the opportunity to rescue the memory box. Once in Minnesota, Coyote cannot bring herself to say goodbye to Salvador and tries to distract herself. As the bus is leaving, Salvador runs up and asks if they can ride along to a new destination where jobs await the two sisters in Yakima, Washington.

As they pass through Minnesota, Coyote has a chance meeting with Val, a young woman who just told to her parents that she was gay. In response, they ordered her to deny her sexuality or leave their home. Coyote invites Val onto the bus, where she quickly bonds with the younger travelers. They share several deep conversations, during which it comes to light that Salvador is a violin virtuoso who never had a chance to perform for his mother. The next day when they stop for lunch in Billings, Montana, Coyote sets a plan into motion for Salvador to perform in the empty performing arts center. A security guard threatens to interrupt the solo before Val tricks him into believing this is an audition set up by the center’s highest authorities.

As they rush out of the arts center to get away from the security guard, Rodeo begins to question Coyote about her true intent. He has realized that she is not really telling him where she wants to go and why. Coyote confesses the truth. Rodeo says he will not return to his old hometown. One by one, the other passengers confront him with reasons he must go, eventually causing him to commit grudgingly to continuing the trip. As they approach Boise, Idaho, Lester concludes he does not want to be with his girlfriend Tammy. He persuades Coyote to use his phone to call her and explain his recognition that the two are not suited.

Coyote wakes to the screams of passengers on the bus. She discovers that the brakes have gone out as Concepción is driving down a hill, dodging traffic. When she pulls over at last, Rodeo examines the brakes and announces that it will require at least two days to get the parts and fix them. Other passengers immediately go to work and not only discover the parts at hand, but get them delivered by a school district employee, Tammy, who wants a favor. She asks that her daughter’s pet goat, Gladys, be delivered at the end of the journey. Gladys takes an immediate shine to the other passengers.

Coyote wakes in the middle of the night, realizing the bus is not moving. She finds it has been driven in the opposite direction from Poplin Springs and Rodeo has disappeared. She finds him sitting on a log in a stream drinking beer. Coyote tells him she is determined to return to their old home to face everything, whether he comes with her or not. He begs her not to leave him and eventually commits to finishing the trip. For the first time in years, he calls her by her true name for the first time in the book: Ella.

The next day, about two hours behind schedule, they drop Esperanza and Concepción in Yakima. Salvador gets permission to continue on with Coyote. About eight miles from Poplin Springs, a state trooper stops the bus. He is looking for Val, who lied to everyone about her age. Rodeo is arrested on suspicion of kidnapping. The trooper takes off with Rodeo and Val, ordering the others to stay put on the side of the road. Her father speaks a coded message to Coyote, encouraging her to take the bus and drive to the park. Coyote finds the spare keys on the bus and, accompanied by Salvador, drives the rest of the way to the park. They are flagged by a police officer along the way and race him on the interstate to continue to Poplin Springs before it’s too late.

At the park, they discover the grove of trees where the box was buried has already been bulldozed. The dirt from it is in a great pile. With the help of Salvador and two workers, she digs into the pile. Coyote locates and frees the box. As she is taking it toward a shade tree, the police officer grabs her arm, and he is instantly rammed by Gladys the goat. Coyote asks for a few moments to look inside the box. She is joined by Rodeo, who was released from police custody. Together they study the contents and remember their family.

Coyote escapes with stern warnings. She says tearful goodbyes to her friends and spends several days with her grandmother. Seeing Rodeo fix up the bus, she realizes they are about to depart again and makes her father commit to searching for a place where they can live. He begins to call her Ella once more.