Survival is a theme in all of Paulsen's more than 100 books. And survival is something he knows well. He's lived in the wilderness with only a bow and arrow, sailed the ocean alone, killed bears and moose. It is Gary Paulsen's overwhelming belief in young people that drives him to write. His intense desire to tap deeply into the human spirit and to encourage readers to observe and care about the world around them has brought him both enormous popularity with young people and critical acclaim from the children's book community. He is one of the most respected writers of young adult literature today.
Brian is a boy that got saved from an airplane crash in the book Hatchet. Now some people want him to go back to do everything over, so they would know how he survived in the wilderness. However, this time, Derek would also go with him, (Derek is an adult who would write down the things they did and how they would survive). Derek gets injured and now Brian has to take care of Derek, who is in a comma.
Cornered in a canyon during his first coming-of-age horse raid, a young Apache brave, Coyote Runs, is shot execution-style by soldiers from Fort Bliss. One hundred years later, Brennan Cole discovers a skull with a hole through its forehead in a canyon where he's been camping and becomes obsessed by the need to find out the who, what, and why of the skull. With the help of a pathologist, his high-school biology teacher, and someone from the Western Historical Archives in Denver, Brennan pieces the story together. The bond between the two boys, a century apart in time but so close in age and spirit, grows stronger as Brennan now searches for the final answer: why is Coyote Runs' spirit so restless, and what does it want of him?.