Touching Spirit Bear Monthly Review

The teen novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen is about a teenage juvenile delinquent named Cole. The story starts when Cole robs a hardware store and a 9th grade boy named peter tells the police what he did. Cole is just and angry and confused teenager who has been spending his life stealing and fighting for years. one day after school Cole confronts peter and fights him. By fighting Peter, Cole caused him mental and physical damage. Cole bashed Peters head on the side walk and now not only will he be charged for robbery but now he will also be charged for assault. For this Cole is offered two options, he can either go to jail or he must join the Circle justice. The Circle of Justice is an group which hopes to heal everyone involved, whether it be the offender, the victim, and or the community. Circle Justice's tells Cole that he has to go to a remote island in Alaska for a year to look upon what he has done and to get his mind and thoughts cleared. Going to the island would not eliminate his jail time but there was a pretty good chance of shortening it. Cole goes through so much that now he understands a little bit of how peter feels. He was almost mangled to death by a bear and being so hungry that he eats his puke. Also, he sees a live rat on his arm, and eats that too, along with worms. He starts to wish he was in jail and says

If it weren't for his parents, Peter, and the stupid Healing Circle, he wouldn't even be here.(45).

When he finds himself being heavily beaten almost to death by a mysterious white bear he wishes he was in jail. When he is laying there in the rain with his mouth filled with blood and his shirt ripped up and his chest cut up and his arm broken and not being able to move or breathe he wishes he was someplace else, someplace warm. Being banished to a remote Alaskan island can doesn't sound fun but i guess it gives him more time to think being by himself.

As i Read an article about Ben Mikaelsen on Wikipedia it turns out that his life really influenced or inspired his book Touching spirit Bear. One of the ways his life is similar is that he has a pet bear that the takes care of and saved it from being killed and i think thats where he got the idea for the Spirit Bear. The bear is apparently friendly after he had his claws taken form him and Ben on a personal level doesn't think it was right that they took him out of his natural habitat. Another thing that i think inspired him to write this book was that as a boy growing up in Bolivia he was bullied....he didn't start school until 4th grade and then moved to the U.S. From how i see it i think Ben is in a way trying to tell the audience how he felt when he was bullied and uses Peter and a character to portray him. Cole bullied Peter and almost killed him. Maybe Ben got to the point when all the bullying that had happened to him he felt that he wanted to die. Or maybe he associated the pain of his bullying to getting your head smashed against the sidewalk. When Peter comes to the island with his parents and Garvey he is really scared of Cole and tries to avoid him as much as possible. Ben probably never wanted to confront his offenders but what i think Ben is trying to show is that no matter what someone did, or how bad it was, one should always find someway to try and forgive one another. Before reading about Ben's life i never would have guessed that he had a pet Bear or that he was bullied i just thought he had an overactive imagination and an imagination with great detail. If you are also interested about learning more about Ben Mikaelsen's like their is another website i found on Scholastic.com.

Cole is a really confused and hard to get through to. He could be doing so many things with his life than going in the streets and robbing stores. i can't imagine all the things that were going through his mind when he smashed Peter's head into the sidewalk. When he gets to the island he wants to have power and control over it and when he meets the spirit bear he wants to demonstrate how powerful he really is. But the spirit bear did him a favor when he almost killed him. Maybe not at first but cole did end up realizing that he can't blame his problem on other people he only has himself to blame.

What did you learn. Asked Edwin. "To forgive," Cole said "Being angry is giving someone else control of my feelings so they own me. Forgiving gives me control again.

Although he hasn't carved anything about forgiveness in his totem. So far he has been doing good. He still soaks in the pond and pushes the rock and he knows he has changed . WHen he dances he carves it out in his totembut things start to turn when Edwin shows up for a surprise visit and tells him that Peter tried to commit suicide twice. Cole really wants to help.

i can help him!

i know he's afraid of me and what i did, he thinks im a monster that's coming back to get hi. Maybe if he meets me face to face he'll see i've changed and maybe he'll see that he can heal to.

Peter tries to get back at Cole, he throws rocks at him and he destroys Cole's Spirit Bear carving on the totem. After all that Cole takes Peter to go and soak alone, without Garvey. When they reach the pond, Peter starts fighting Cole but he refuses to fight back because of the past and how he has changed. Cole can only try to defend himself by blocking the hits. However, after a while, Peter stops beating Cole and starts crying. Cole hugs and comforts him. Deep down i really do think Cole feels sorry and regrets ever laying a hand on Peter but without all that had happened maybe he would've never waken up and found out who he really is. Life goes on as natural without disturbance allowing the one invisible to see everything that really happens in nature. in nature all you see is the truth.

Overall Touching Spirit Bear was a good book. I have to admit it was a little too detailed in some aspects in my opinion. So if you don't like reading a book about people getting teared to shreds then maybe this book isn't for you. Before i this book i hadn't read any other books by Ben Mikaelsen and my brother was the one who recommended this book to me because he read it in his class. Im looking forward to reading other books by Ben Mikaelsen.

Touching Spirit Bear letter # 3

This is the last lit.circle letter for my book and Cole has come a long way. He has realized that he has changed.

What did you learn. Asked Edwin. "To forgive," Cole said. Being angry is giving someone else control of my feelings so they own me. Forgiving gives me control again.

Although he hasn't carved anything about forgiveness in his totem. So far he has been doing good. He still soaks in the pond and pushes the rock and he knows he has changed . WHen he dances he carves it out in his totembut things start to turn when Edwin shows up for a surprise visit and tells him that Peter tried to commit suicide twice.

He really wants to help peter because he thinks its the right thing to do.

I can help him! I know he's afaid of me and what i did, he thinks im a monster that's coming back to get hi. Maybe if he meets me face to face he'll see i've changed and maybe he'll see that he can heal to.

He has a crazy idea to bring peter to the island. Peter's parents don't know what to do. They have run out of options and decide to bring Peter to the island, this was not an easy desicion. Peters parents would never let him go alone so they will accompany him until they feel that he really is safe and Garvey will also be there, just in case. After a few days, Peter tries to get back at Cole, he throws rocks at him and he destroys Cole's Spirit Bear carving on the totem. After all that Cole takes Peter to go and soak alone, without Garvey. When they reach the pond, Peter starts fighting Cole but he refuses to fight back because of the past and how he has changed. Cole can only try to defend himself by blocking the hits. However, after a while, Peter stops beating Cole and starts crying. Cole hugs and comforts him. At this point they both look up and see the spirit bear. This occurred because both Peter and Cole have become "invisible", or accepting of life's circle. While invisible, nature will see you as who you truly are. Life goes on as natural without disturbance allowing the one invisible to see everything that really happens in nature. in nature all you see is the truth. In the end Peter helps Cole carve a circle as the last piece of the totem pole. Garvey walks in and sees that Cole has carved a perfect circle and asks why. The boys don't answer and Garvey says

Could it be because every part of a circle is both a beginning and an end?" " and everything is one? Peter disagrees. He claims it's the only thing he could teach Cole to carve. Cloe nodded and said Im a slow learner but im working on it.

Touching Spirit Bear letter # 2

This is a really gross part in this book. It’s when Cole gets hurt, and he can’t move. His body is torn up. He's starved and throws up. He’s so hungry that he eats his puke and it makes me want to throw up too. Also, he sees a live rat on his arm, and eats that too, along with worms.

" He found two seagulls near his head, peaking fish chunks from the vomit he had trouwn up in the grass. My puke,Cole thought. They're eating my puke. In that moment, Sloe realiized how badly he wanted to live. The food he had thrown up was still food. Those fish bits sill contained energy, and energy was life, No thieving seagull was going to steal life from him. He jerked his arm at the gulls."Mine", he grunted."THat's mine". Squaking, the gulls hopped his reach. Cloe stretched his arm out, picked a small chunk of fish from the grass, and brought it to his mouth. After swallowing he reached foe more. Bit by bit until the few remaining pieces were too small to pinch between his fingers. Finally he relaxed. Eating had taken his last ounce of energy."(89)

Cole is starting to realize alot of things now that any type of food means energy and the author describes that with what and how Cole eats.This part is one of my favorites so far because he realized that he needed other people to survive. He also learned that he cannot always blame other people when the fault is only his own. I think Cole started to open his eyes about everything when he began to wade in the icy, cold water and when he throws his ancestor rock down the big, dense hill.

" Wolves often hunted in a pack. Together, they accomplished more than they could alone."(161)

"What did you learn?" Garvey asked.

"that you need the help of others" Cloe said.(162)

When he threw the rock that was the symbol of his ancestors he was letting go of all his anger and as it "tumbled faster and faster, Cloe felt his body grow lighter, and when the rock smashed to a stop at the bottom, he felt as if he could fly.