Tricky Coyote

by Susan J. Kroupa

Nobody wants a coyote for an animal guide, least of all Jimmy Shupla. Coyotes are the trickiest of the animals, always getting themselves in trouble. But at every turn in his life—most of them bad—Jimmy sees a coyote lurking nearby. Then his mother makes him move from his grandparents’ home on the Hopi reservation to go live in Apache Junction. Lonely, sweltering in the desert heat, and bullied at school, Jimmy discovers he has more in common with coyotes than he could ever imagine. But will the discovery save or destroy him?

Written by award-winning author Susan J. Kroupa, who has lived and worked on both the Navajo and Hopi reservations, this poignant story of a boy caught in the crossfires of change reverberates with choices we all must make as to what forces will guide our lives.

10 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 8, 2012

About the author

Before she let her writing go to the dogs, Susan J. Kroupa won awards for her fiction from such places as the Utah Arts Council Contest, Writers of the Future and the Deep South Writing Competition. Her stories have appeared in Realms of Fantasy and in a variety of anthologies, including Bruce Coville's Shapeshifters. Now, she is perhaps best known for her Doodlebugged Mysteries, a gentle cozy series featuring the irrepressible but obedience-impaired sniffer-dog, Doodle.

Susan lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Southwestern Virginia with her husband and a trouble-prone labradoodle whose superpower is bringing home dead possums. You can learn more about her on her webpage www.susankroupa.com or by subscribing to her newsletter (where you can sometimes get free stories and other cool stuff) at http://eepurl.com/3PUR1.