Out today in book stores, Dan Gemeinhart follows up The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise with Coyote Lost and Found. Coyote, still sharing the grief from the loss of her mother and two sisters with her father Rodeo, has just begun settling in to her new school and a new normal for life when she finds a box containing her mother’s ashes. She and her father must come to terms with whether they are ready to scatter the ashes. The bigger problem lies in the Coyote’s accidental loss of her mother’s wishes for where they are to be scattered when she sold one of her mother’s favorite books to a used book store. The question is whether Coyote can find her mom’s instructions without her father ever realizing they were lost. They crank up Yager, their old trusty bus, and add a few unlikely friends for an adventure that proves to be as humorous as it is touching in their remembrance and in their seeking closure for their loss.
I read the second Coyote book without having read the first. It is tricky for a writer to include enough of a first book to keep the new reader informed without repeating so much that the reader of the first book is not bored by repetition. He did the first well, and I am guessing that he did the second as well since this is a story all unto itself. I also know that I now have the urge to go back and read the first book. Fortunately, the Oak Grove Public Library had it in their stock. I just had to wait on the person ahead of me on the reserve list. Fortunately, it must have been checked out to a fast reader since they called me for pick up this week! Now Coyote Sunrise sits atop Yager enticing me to my reading chair. See you later!