Touching Spirit Bear
by Ben Mikaelsen

HarperTrophy, 2001, 240 pp., $5.99
ISBN-13: 978-0-380-80560-0
ISBN-10: 0-380-80560-X

This book is about a boy named Cole and he lives in Minnesota and he has a rough life with his parents they both drink a lot and his dad abuses him but Cole gets very mad when they do that.

So he takes it out at the kids at school like this boy named Peter he told on Cole for stealing and once Cole found out Peter did it he told him he was going to get him after school and he did he saw peter and start hitting him in the face and then he bang his head on the ground and Cole thought he got away but the next day Peter's parents charged him with assault.

So for a day Cole went to jail and his therapist Garvey came in to talk him about why he did that and when he did that he went to island instead of going to jail but at that time Cole thought was the dumpiest idea in the world but the next day he went to court and that was the first time he saw peter sense the fight and Cole still didn’t care.

So when he got there they were sitting in a circle and everybody that was in the circle they got a chance to talk about how they fill about the problem and once it came to Peter he was stuttering so badly you could hardily hear him but Peter said that he wished that somebody could smash his head in to the concrete so he can see what it feels like.

But Peter's lawyer wanted Cole to go to jail so bad that she started to talk about that he is going to do it again he was going to beat on every kid in the neighborhood and Cole thought to himself I really want to change so told the judged that he will do what ever it takes for him not to go to jail then Garvey suggested that Cole should go to the same island he went as a kid to learn respect.

Well I think all young adults will like this book because it shows that some kids have a rough life but they could change but it will wake some time and this book has bit profanity but other than that this book is good because he think he is having a hallucination but he is seeing the real thing.

~ reviewed by Anthony A.