“This book is about the kind of magic that comes from loving and believing in yourself, and the kind of magic that comes from being surrounded by people who love you.” This is a painfully real story about poverty, alcoholism, and abuse. It deals with the courage required to ask for and receive help. I know it is going to be a mirror book to many middle grade readers, but it is also going to be a window book for others. I highly recommend reading and sharing it.

This might be Jessica Vitalis's best work yet. That's saying something because I loved The Wolf's Curse and The Rabbit's Gift so much. (The former was one of my top reads of 2021!) But this book...I laughed, I cried. Fud's struggles felt so real that even the mysterious, magical dreams she's having about being a coyote felt believable. This book would strongly appeal to anyone who enjoyed The Benefits of Being an Octopus, as it has similar themes, but it's a wonderful, unique story.

Coyote Queen was an interesting blend of realistic fiction and fantasy. Realistically, the main character Fud has a tough home life living in poverty with her mom’s abusive, alcoholic boyfriend, but she is ultimately saved by the kindness of her new neighbors. Fantastically, as Fud faces increasingly challenging situations both at school and at home, she begins transitioning into a coyote. While I get what the author was trying to do with this, I felt that it wasn’t present enough throughout the story to have the impact intended. Or maybe it just wasn’t for me. I found myself cringing every time reference was made to Fud’s coyote qualities. Even so, I could hardly put this book down. Fud’s story was gripping and heart wrenching. As a teacher, I was reminded of the importance of our roles in recognizing signs of abuse and as mandated reporters. Parents/guardians and educators should be aware that this book is definitely on the darker side.

I was hooked right from.the opening pages. Jessica Vitalis has a great command on the story and Fud's character arc, and the book benefits from her strong voice. This book made my heart ache; I kept turning the pages desperate for the MC to find some relief. The ending isn't typical, which somehow still feels authentic. And the slightly magical element of the coyote have been masterfully woven in to make the story that much stronger. Recommended!

The character development is superb and the trials through which our protagonist must suffer are gut-wrenching. As with several other MG books I've encountered this year, my sense is that this could have worked better without elements of the fantastical, but this book found the balance more ably than "Turtles of the Midnight Moon" or "The Beautiful Something Else."

All of that said, I'm not going to be the best judge of this book: it's one of those novels that strikes a deep personal chord through which it is difficult to read critically. Between the domestic violence and the unexpected animal death near the end, my ability to assess the book outside of my own emotional response was limited. Perhaps that says something about just how moving this book is.

Coyote Queen was an adorable story of a young girl who is trying to help her mom escape and abusive relationship by trying to win a local beauty pageant to help them get out of the crappy trailer park and away from the bad boyfriend her mom dates. She dreams of being like the coyotes who roam around her home wild and free. This sparks her imagination to be free of the confines of her current life. This is an excellent youth novel especially for girls.

Coyote Queen by @jessicavauthor was an interesting story…I got to read it early thanks to @netgalley, but you can read it in October!
Fud didn’t see herself as a beauty queen, but when she learned a cash prize was given to the winner, she knew she’d do anything to get that money. Maybe it’d be enough to get her mom away from Larry! I really enjoyed this story, watching Fud grow, and watching her friendship with Leigh ebb and flow as the story went on.
Seeing what Fud experienced in her day to day life, and then also watching her realize that Leigh and Ava didn’t have quite the perfect life either was a good reminder. You never really know what other people are dealing with.
I can see students either seeing themselves in this story, or seeing others and finding compassion. I hope those that see themselves in Fud realize they too can trust someone in the end!
I wasn’t quite as sure about the coyote connection… I enjoyed aspects of it, but found myself slightly confused at a few parts there, but that’s all I’ll say because I don’t want to give too much away there.
#ilovetoread #kidliterature #advancedreaderscopy #windowsandmirrors #relevantreading

Coyote Queen was hard to read, given the abusive adult in Fud’s life. But this book was developed masterfully, with strength and innovation. A new neighbor, a pageant, a tail… all come together to find the way out.

One of the hallmarks of a great read for me is a book that keeps me guessing the whole way through, and this story of main character Fud navigating traumatic family relationships, middle school friendships and bullies, and life in rural Wyoming -- all infused with magical realism -- did just that. It'll take you on a rollercoaster ride of emotion on an unexpected journey with a glimmer of hope at the end.

This was an interesting book.
Harper Collins Publishers let me read this for review (thank you). It will be published October 10th.

She listens to the coyotes sing and soon she is finding a part of her resembling the coyote. Did you have a tail?

Her stepdad has temper and he hits her mother.

She decides to participate in a contest that only takes 30 contestants.

She has one girl she doesn't like. The one she does suddenly won't speak to her.

It's amazing how everything works out...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. As a reader you experience the confusion that Fud experiences when she is '"turning into a coyote". An engaging book that will keep you reading to find out what will happen. You'll root for Fud as well as Fud and Leigh's friendship. I also enjoy the character of Leigh's mother, Click.

This novel was often difficult to read due to my own childhood trauma. The characters were engaging and the plans of Fud's stepfather truly felt world ending. However, the magical realism was so abrupt and poorly developed I couldn't get into it. Without the random coyote transformation, this novel could have been groundbreaking. The magic took away from an otherwise realistic and educational story. I also struggled to accept the ending. Everything was wrapped into a neat little bow. The ending was too cheesy and self-gratuitous. I would have rather had the ending feel a little uncertain, just like the rest of Fud's life.

Jessica Vitalis uses experiences from her own troubled childhood to give middle grade readers a heartfelt look at a young life touched by poverty, homelessness and domestic abuse. Felicity (aka “Fud”) and her mom have always been on their own and at times that as meant living in a one room cabin or a car but now means living with Larry, a washed up boxer with a temper. There is a roof over their heads, but the trailer is in terrible shape and money and food are often scarce. When Leigh and her mom move into the trailer beside Fud, an unlikely friendship forms between two girls who live and look very differently. But a beauty pageant and its cash prize may be just the thing that will give Fud’s mom the strength to leave the abusive Larry. Vitalis’ Fud is not perfect and her own temper earns her two days of school suspension, but she yearns for family, friends, and safety like every one does but fears it is not in the cards for her. Interesting author’s craft choice—Fud listens to a pack of coyotes near her Wisconsin trailer, researches their habits and sounds and often finds herself behaving, seeing, and even looking like one of them as she searches for the security of the coyote’s den. So is this a realistic fiction book with hints of fantasy or is the coyote connection simply metaphorical? Reader’s choice, I think! Highly recommended for libraries serving readers in grades 4-7 and could be displayed with Jordan Sonnenblick’s The Secret Sheriff of Sixth Grade, Candice Ransom’s Rebel McKenzie, Melanie Conklin’s Every Missing Piece and Josh Bauer’s Almost Home or Close to Famous.

Living in poverty with her mother, twelve-year-old Fud's life hits rock bottom when they move into a trailer with her mother's abusive boyfriend. But when a girl moves in next door and convinces Fud to enter a beauty pageant with her, Fud's desperation turns into hope when she envisions winning the pageant's prize money so that she and her mother can escape the violence. Author Jessica Vitalis crafts a powerful story of poverty, bullying, and domestic violence, while leaving room for magic, as Fud escapes into her imagination when she hears the howling of coyotes late at night. Coyote Queen is a heartfelt tale of survival and hope.

Thank you Greenwillow Books, NetGalley, and Jessica Vitalis for the advance review copy (all opinions are my own).

Thank you to NetGalley, Greenwillow Books, and Jessica Vitalis for the eARC!

COYOTE QUEEN was a powerful, heart-wrenching magical middle grade novel that tackled difficult and important topics from a unique point of view. The story will appeal to fans of THE KING OF JAM SANDWICHES by Eric Walters or THE REMARKABLE JOURNEY OF COYOTE SUNRISE by Dan Gemeinhart.

Fud lives alone with her mom and her mom's abusive boyfriend Larry in a cramped trailer in Wyoming. Although she dreams of a better life for her and her mom, most of her days are focused on just getting by and staying off of Larry's radar. She takes solace in the coyotes that roam the countryside at night and are free in a way that she's not sure she'll ever be.

Things come to a head when a few sudden changes shake up Fud's family. Her only hope is winning an upcoming beauty pageant and using the prize money to get her and her mom into a better situation. Yet Fud's not exactly your typical pageant queen — and on top of that, she's starting to think she's more like her beloved coyotes than she'd ever realized...

I loved Fud as a narrator, and appreciated the honestly with which Vitalis told this story — much of which was inspired by her own childhood, as she describes in an author's note. The story is so truthful when it comes to topics like poverty and domestic violence, and I think it will really help a lot of MG readers.

The setting was also a real highlight of this story for me — I loved the Wyoming countryside and all the animals Fud encountered, but especially the coyotes. The combination of this contemporary story with the speculative twist was also really interesting and well done — it made for a very unique, very powerful story.

Vitalis is a great writer, and this was a really poignant, honest, vulnerable story that will stick with me for a long time. Highly recommend!

Extraordinary. Such an important story and beautifully told. Jessica tells the unvarnished beautiful and ugly truths of Fud's life. There are many dark moments in a hope filled tale, and readers are sure to root for Fud from the beginning all the way through the grays to the colorful end.

Coyote Queen is an unsparingly honest yet hopeful book about a girl caught in an unstable home life of poverty and domestic abuse. It's beautifully written and handled with a sensitivity that will make this a valuable addition to any middle-grade library.

One of my most anticipated reads this year and it didn’t disappoint! COYOTE QUEEN. It is vulnerable, raw, and real, but also hopeful and carefully told. Vitalis does a beautiful job rooting the reader in the MCs world.

Exquisitely written and painfully real, this is a brave and beautiful book about hard, important things. The story pulls no punches, not with the realities of domestic violence and the toll it takes on families, nor with the courage required to ask for and receive help. We root for the main character from the first page to last, and her ability to ultimately save herself is a testament to the enduring resilience of the human spirit. I give it my highest recommendation.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Coyote Queen by Jessica Vitalis is a phenomenal book for middle grade readers. While some people read books to escape reality, some readers want to see their reality reflected in stories to know they’re not alone and that things do get better. Coyote Queen is that story for children living in poverty and facing violence at home. While this book covers heavy topics, it portrays them in an approachable way for its target age group and offers excellent guidance on what to do if the reader is facing those issues themselves.