The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Coyote Sunrise and her father have been traveling in a converted school bus for 5 years, since the tragedy that caused her father, Rodeo, to uproot them. They have not returned home to the state of Washington, even to visit Coyote's grandmother, since they left. 

When Coyote makes her weekly call to her grandmother and finds out a park back home is about to be plowed under and turned into a stretch of road, she must figure out a way to get from Florida to Washington to recover a box buried in the park before it's too late. But, she can't let her father know the real reason they're heading west. On the way, Coyote and Rodeo pick up people in need of help and form a lovely little make-shift family. Their new friends help Coyote with her time-sensitive mission and encourage Coyote and Rodeo to face their grief so they can live life instead of running away from it. 

Highly recommended - I loved this quirky, middle grade road trip book about grief and family and life. There's a lot of sadness in the story because Coyote and Rodeo have good reason to have been grieving and everyone they pick up along the way has his or her own troubles, but in the end there's change for the better and a wonderful ray of hope for everyone on the bus, in addition to new friendships that are absolutely heartwarming. 

After a mostly bad month (in February), The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart was the book that finally broke my slump and made me feel like reading again. I will be watching for more by this author. 

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