Touching Spirit Bear
by Ben Mikaelsen

Publisher: Harper Collins New York
Copyright Date: 2001
Number of pages: 241
ISBN Number: 0380977443
Price: $6.99

Cole Mathews is a teenager in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  One day he trashed a store.  Then a boy named Peter Driscoll found out and told on Cole.  In revenge Cole beat up Peter.  Peter was beat  up so bad he began to have mental problems.

Other main characters in the book include Garvey, who is Cole’s detention officer and Edwin, who is part of the circle of justice. 

The Court decides to put Cole in the traditional Native American Circle of Justice system as a way to make him responsible for the assault.  The Circle of Justice decided to send him to a remote island in Alaska.  At the island,  Cole tries to escape but fails.

On the island he saw the spirit bear, which is a legendary bear.  The bear disappeared.  Later in his stay on the island Cole burns down the shelter Edwin and Garvey made for him.  When Cole was out hunting he saw the spirit bear again.  Cole tried attacking the bear, but was mauled by the bear.  Six months later after almost being killed by the spirit bear, Cole was back on the island.  He learns a lot from the Native American  teachers.  To teach Peter not to be afraid of Cole, Cole requests that Peter come to the island and learn with Cole.  Cole’s plan works.

I thought parts of the book were gross such as those parts describing Cole eating hair and worms and a mouse in order to survive.  Other parts of the book, however, were funny such as when the sprit bear liked up coals spit and when Garvey  tried to explain life as a hot dog.  Some parts of the book  were surprising.  For example, it was surprising when Cole tried to kill the spirit bear and when Peter Driscoll tried to kill himself.  I did not like these parts of the book, but I think they added a lot to the book.  I could relate to the book in some ways.  The connection to Minneapolis and the parts about camping appealed to me.  The book is good at teaching you that it is not good  to attack other people and that the attacker will suffer as much as the person attacked.

I recommend this book to people that like shocking stories and people who like stories about the outdoors.  People who can’t stand gross survival techniques and people who don’t like hearing about bad people should avoid this book.  I liked Touching Spirit Bear.  You should too.  But not if you are a clean freak you will not like this book.

~ reviewed by Clay