Paulsen's "Canyons": A Summary 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