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Book Review
Reflection on Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature by Jon Young
Review by Rebecca Fox
A field-tested mentor’s manual for deepening children's relationship with nature, offering stories, routines, and practices to awaken curiosity, quietude, and ecological belonging.
See Also 
STUDY GUIDE Coyote’s Path: Mentoring as Nature Connection and 
Coyote Mentoring Games, Story Prompts, Sit Spots
Review of “Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature — A Field Guide to Rewilding Education” by Jon Young
Review by Rebecca
What happens when education steps outside the classroom and into the forest? When a child listens, waits, and follows a crow instead of a curriculum? Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature doesn’t just ask these questions—it lives them.
More than a book, Coyote’s Guide is a companion for those longing to guide others (or themselves) into deeper connection with the living world. Authored by Jon Young, Ellen Haas, and Evan McGown, it grew out of decades of mentoring at wilderness schools like the Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, Washington, and reflects an ethos of education rooted in lineage, land, and love.
Who’s the Trickster Now?
The name Coyote here is no accident. The guide draws on the “coyote mentoring” tradition, a way of teaching through questions, stories, and stealth learning—not direct instruction. Coyote, in Indigenous and mythic traditions, is the trickster, the transformer, the one who teaches through mischief, surprise, and challenge. In this guide, mentors become coyotes—not the center of attention, but always nearby, nudging the edges of perception and understanding.
Young and his co-authors explicitly distance themselves from didactic, teacher-knows-best education. Their focus is on routines and relationships, not checklists or achievement. “Connection,” they write, “is the baseline.” Without it, learning becomes brittle. With it, it becomes alive.
Structure and Philosophy
The book is divided into three core sections:
- The Art of Mentoring – foundational principles and roles of the mentor, from storytelling to question-asking, modeling to mirroring.
- The Natural Learning Cycle – a framework for experiential learning rooted in awareness, curiosity, and reflection.
- The Routines of Nature Connection – specific practices like sit spots, story of the day, animal forms, and Thanksgiving that create consistency and depth over time.
But what really shines is the interweaving of story. The book is full of field anecdotes from real mentors and children. It’s lived experience—sometimes hilarious, sometimes quiet, often transformative. This storytelling is not an accessory; it is the pedagogy. It shows how nature connection unfolds unpredictably, relationally, and often when least expected.
What You’ll Do (Not Just Think)
Reading Coyote’s Guide might inspire you—but it will also change what you do. It’s full of what Jon Young would call “invitations” rather than assignments. You’ll find yourself:
- returning to the same sit spot day after day,
- listening for the shape of bird calls, not just species,
- telling “story of the day” around fires or dinner tables,
- learning to ask the kind of questions that linger and ripple rather than resolve.
The point isn’t to master nature. It’s to belong to it. To hear yourself as part of the chorus, not above it.
For Whom?
This book is written for mentors, educators, and parents—but it resonates beyond roles. Anyone who longs to rekindle a deeper connection with nature, or who wants to invite children into that intimacy, will find something here. It’s especially well-suited for:
- Forest School educators
- Homeschooling families
- Nature-based therapists
- Summer camp leaders
- Those designing rites of passage or teen wilderness programs
It also aligns beautifully with Indigenous-informed pedagogies, although the book is careful not to claim that lineage. Instead, it honors those traditions and aims to carry forward the core principles of gratitude, relationship, and deep listening.
From Routine to Ritual
Among the most powerful aspects of the guide is its emphasis on routine—but not in a rigid sense. Practices like “Thanksgiving,” where participants give thanks at the start of each gathering, become rhythm-makers. Sit spots turn into rituals of belonging. Over time, these routines cultivate qualities that most curricula ignore: attentiveness, wonder, quietude, humility.
This is not education aimed at producing mastery, but maturity. Not knowledge, but knowing.
“The forest does not teach through lectures. It teaches through presence.” — Coyote’s Guide
A Note on the Authors
Jon Young trained with tracker Tom Brown Jr. but took a different path—away from survivalism and toward connection. He’s the founder of the 8 Shields Institute and a key figure in the global nature connection movement. Ellen Haas and Evan McGown are also seasoned mentors, writers, and educators in their own right, each contributing different layers to the book’s voice and vision.
Where It Leads
Coyote’s Guide is less of a curriculum than a compass. It won’t give you a lesson plan. But it will orient you toward a different kind of education—one where mystery matters, where relationships precede knowledge, and where the more-than-human world becomes not a setting, but a co-teacher.
You might close the book with muddy shoes, new questions, and a notebook full of stories. That’s the point.
Related Books & Resources
- Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature (Amazon)
- Jon Young’s 8 Shields Institute
- Coyote’s Guide Audio Companion
- Coyote’s Guide Facilitator Tools and Workshops
- Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
- How to Raise a Wild Child by Scott D. Sampson
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
- The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
- The Tracker by Tom Brown Jr.
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Keywords Visible Thinking • Documentation • Learning as a Social Act