Touching Spirit Bear

Touching Spirit Bear

Ben Mikaelsen

Harper Collins in 2001

Summary:

Cole Mathews is a young boy that is angry- with the world and his family and himself. One day, Cole takes out his anger on another boy named Peter Driscall. He smashes Peter's head against the sidewalk and Peter ends up with almost permanent brain damage. As punishment for Cole, he has to go to an island in Alaska for a year so that he can learn how to heal and to let his anger leave. At first, Cole destroys the shelter that was built for him and tries to swim an escape. He can't escape that way and is brought back to the island where he is mauled by the great Spirit Bear. He is left to die. During this time, he learns a lot about himself and changes. Cole learns how to release his mind and roll his anger away and how to do the animal dances and how to carve and how to forgive. He learns so much about himself and about life and others.

Review:

I have read this book before and I think that it is a pretty good book. I like how Cole changes so drastically and that you know why and how he changed so much. I like the drastic differences between the Cole then and the Cole at the end of the book. I liked the people that tried to help him, Garvey and Edwin, who were always there to help him through his trials and to care about him. I like how there were some lessons in the book that everyone can learn- about love and trust and anger and revenge.

Cautionary Note:

This book has a lot of gross things in it. He eats things that people wouldn't normally eat and he as well as Peter get beat up pretty bad, which explains how they were beat up and the damage it caused. The mauling of the bear was really violent and bloody.