Dan Gemeinhart’s Coyote Lost and Found is the sequel to The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise. In the first installment of the series, Coyote spends five years living on the road with her father, Rodeo. Their cross-country adventures are spurred by their shared grief over the deaths of Coyote’s mother and her two sisters (Ava and Rose) in a car accident. During those years, Coyote and her father live in an old school bus named Yager, and the loss of their family members defines their lives, shaping their unusual lifestyle. With no stable home and no other family, Coyote and Rodeo become entirely dependent on one another. They spend nearly every moment together and form a bond that is loving but also isolating.

Although life on the road gives them freedom, it also prevents them from properly processing their grief. Rodeo comes to rely on Coyote for emotional support in a way that blurs the roles of parent and child, while Coyote begins to feel confined by a life that is constantly moving yet emotionally stuck. This tension between freedom and confinement sets the stage for Coyote’s mindset at the beginning of the sequel.

Coyote is 12 years old during the events of the first novel, which take place in her fifth year on the road. In that story, she secretly plans a journey to return to a park where she once buried a memory box with her mother and sisters. To avoid hurting Rodeo, she lies about the purpose of the trip and manipulates the route to reach her destination. When the truth is eventually revealed, Rodeo is forced to confront the grief he has been avoiding for years, rather than running from it. As a result, he starts to become a more emotionally present and self-aware parent.

It is also during this first journey that Coyote meets Salvador, who becomes her best friend. Salvador and his mother are escaping an abusive situation, and he and Coyote form a deep connection due to their shared experience of instability. Their friendship is built on honesty and emotional understanding: qualities that Coyote lacks in her other relationships. Salvador represents a connection to someone outside of her immediate family, which is significant for Coyote’s growth and independence.

By the beginning of Coyote Lost and Found, both Coyote and Rodeo have reached a crucial transitional phase. Rodeo has begun to process his grief and is more open to moving forward with this life, but Coyote is ironically less ready to let go of her past, and she desperately clings to the memory of her mother and sisters. This shift in roles creates new tension between father and daughter, setting up the central conflict of the sequel.