Canyons By Gary Paulsen Summary

The book Canyons by Gary Paulsen is about the strange connection between Brennan, a present-time 14-year-old boy, and Coyote Runs, a 14-year-old Apache boy. He is very excited to go on his first raid and become a man. The story takes place in El Paso, Texas, which has a very hot climate and is nestled by many mountains, cliffs, and canyons. Brennan loves to run, but he says that he does it for himself. The track coach urges him to play but he won’t. On the other hand all Coyote Runs can think about is becoming a man. At the beginning of the story, you can tell that there is something suspicious going on between these two boys, with the fact that they are both 14 and soon connect by Brennan finding Coyote Run’s skull many years after he died.

He has waited 14 years for this raid and he can’t get his mind off of it. Once you participate in your first raid, then you become a man. Suddenly after one chapter of Coyote Run’s point of view it switches to a boy named Brennan Cole who is a present time, 14 year old boy that lives in El Paso, Texas, nestled in a very hot, dry, desert-like town that is surrounded by mountains, cliffs, and canyons. As the story progresses it keeps switching point of views between Coyote Runs and Brennan but something very surprising happens. One day Brennan was walking home and notices an unfamiliar car parked in the driveway. It turns out that this car belongs to Bill Halverson, Brennan’s mother’s new boyfriend that invites them to go on a camping trip with some younger kids from his church group. As the story progresses they end up in “Dog Canyon”. They start a fire, tell stories, and talk until bedtime comes. As Brennan is nearing sleep he accidentally comes across something that feels like a rock. He soon realizes that this thing is a human skull. He is a little freaked out by this but he doesn’t tell anyone about it and brings it