Canyons by Gary Paulsen is a book written about a young boy who finds a skull on a
camping trip and it seems to give him mental messages about where he should go and what
he should do. It all starts when Brannon goes on a camping trip with his mom and her
boyfriend. Brannon is having a bad time and is not very social. When he is trying to go
to sleep, he feels something under his sleeping bag. When he finally gets it completely
out of the ground, he realizes it's a skull with a bullet hole in it's forehead. Brannon
hides the skull and takes it home with him. Later, he shows it to an old and wise
professor of his and together, they try to figure out what happened to the person that
the skull belonged to. Through days and weeks of research, they go through several files
and stacks of newspapers. Brannon stayed up several nights reading articles about the
timeperiod given to them by the pathologist who examined the skull earlier. Eventually,
Brannon finds the exact article written about the young Apache warrior. The skull
continues to talk to Brannon, about wanting it's soul to be where it can rest. Brannon
runs away with the skull, about the time his mother called the police after finding it in
his closet, and listens as the voice speaks to him. It wants to be returned to the
Sacred Place. All the memories from the canyons the Apache warrior has come to Brannon,
as though he experienced before, but hadn't. Once the skull is put in it's scared place
in Dog Canyon, both Brannon and the skull can rest. Brannon starts to head home and is
greeted by the police and his mother, who ask for an explanation. Brannon explains the
whole thing to them, and they understand and appreciate him more. This book really
explains the way that the Apaches lived and how hard it was to be accepted by the tribe
as a 'man.' I feel that the Apache boy, Coyote Runs, was who Brannon was in a past life,
and that is what the author is trying to get across.
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