![]() This will make for an entertaining readaloud, though the images are detailed enough that individual readers will also have plenty of jokes to uncover and enjoy. ![]() Author and illustrator deliver on both substance and humor, capturing childlike emotions and conveying them in witty, comforting prose and in accompanying pictures of coyotes in bandanas and ten-gallon hats. Colloquial turns of phrase and Spanish words are peppered throughout, coupled with thoughtfully detailed gouache illustrations lustrous in their warm desert palette, and they effectively evoke the Southwest days are warm and brown, and nights are big and starry. Undeterred by the pup’s growl, Otis makes delicious prickly pear pudding, shows him how to pounce, and tells the funniest stories, winning Cardell over before asking his mama for her paw in marriage. ![]() But where she soon rejected the other gentleman callers, his mother doesn’t discourage Otis-though Cardell certainly tries. He therefore sees no need for Otis, the latest in a line of his mother’s suitors. Cardell the coyote has has adjusted well to his parents’ split, making the most of his visits with his “perfectly good daddy,” stepmama, and stepbrother, and savoring having his “perfectly good mama” to himself the rest of the time. ![]()
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