Yosemite's Songster: One Coyote’s Story

Wadsworth, whose Camping with the President was also set in Yosemite National Park, gives readers a tour of the park’s highlights, while focusing on a coyote that has been separated from her mate. A rock slide divides the pair, and Coyote dashes away, first taking refuge underneath a canvas cabin in Curry Village, and then exploring further. Coyote’s travels give Wadsworth many opportunities to point out the park’s highlights and show how visitors are enjoying it: “Coyote dozes beneath an elderberry bush,/ a perfect umbrella shading her/ from the midday sun./ People are everywhere,/ talking,/ walking,/ riding bicycles,/ or peering out past bus windows.” San Souci, illustrator of Two Bear Cubs and Antelope, Bison, Cougar (which, like this book, benefit the park itself), offers stately watercolor portraits of Coyote and her verdant environs, whether perched on a sun-dappled hillside overlooking Yosemite Family Chapel or reunited with her mate, as they yip at a full moon under a clear, starry sky. A fine introduction to the park and the creatures, activities, and natural marvels it has to offer. Ages 4–7. (Aug.)