Common Sense Media Review
By Mary Eisenhart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Love, death, swearing, slapstick in COVID road trip sequel.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
COYOTE LOST AND FOUND opens with Coyote Sunrise, now 13, settled in small-town Oregon with her dad, Rodeo, in the wake of their grief-driven road trip. Between the cliques and the bullies, she's really regretting her decision to attend regular middle school after a lifetime of travel and homeschooling. When she finds her late mother's ashes in a box on the bus, she and Rodeo take it as a sign to hit the road and find the perfect place to scatter them—something that suddenly becomes possible when school shuts down due to COVID. Soon the quest begins, but not quite the way Coyote had planned. For one thing, Rodeo has invited his new girlfriend, Candace, along, and Coyote is not happy about it. Also, it turns out that her mom left instructions about where she wanted her ashes scattered—in a book they no longer have because it mistakenly got turned in for new books at some thrift store along the way on their last road trip. Which Coyote can't bring herself to tell Rodeo. But hey, there are only a handful of places between Oregon and Maine where it could be, right? It's pretty easy to fool Rodeo. Candace, not so much. Complications ensue.
Is It Any Good?
Dan Gemeinhart takes his quirky narrator, her free-spirited dad, her mom's newly discovered ashes, and assorted friends and strangers on a life-changing road trip as the pandemic begins. Heartfelt grief and loss, middle school, life changes, and other challenges are nonstop in Coyote Lost and Found, but so are the unexpected laughs and moments of connection. Like this exchange between an older man they've just befriended—who has bailed from his well-paid but soul-destroying law firm—and Coyote. He explains:
"'I got tired of spending every day doing something I didn't love, surrounded by people I didn't really like.'
"'I know the feeling,' I said.
"Wally blinked at me. 'You've ... worked in corporate law?'
"'Middle school,' I said."
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about stories set during the pandemic. How do the characters' experiences in Coyote Lost and Found match up to what your life was like at that time? What stories have you found that deal with it especially well?
Some kids were really traumatized when schools shut down in the pandemic. For others, like introverts and bullied kids, it was liberating and life-changing. Now that in-person classes have returned, how are you adjusting?
If you had to plan a cross-country road trip, where would you go, and how would you put it all together?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Family Life
- Topics : Friendship , School ( Middle School )
- Character Strengths : Communication , Empathy , Gratitude , Humility , Teamwork
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Henry Holt
- Publication date : March 5, 2024
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 9 - 12
- Number of pages : 282
- Available on : Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Award : Common Sense Selection
- Last updated : September 18, 2025
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