Touching Spirit Bear

Spirit Bear #1

by Ben Mikaelsen

After severely injuring Peter Driscal in an empty parking lot, troublemaker Cole Matthews is in major trouble. But instead of jail time, Cole is given an alternative: a one-year banishment to a remote Alaskan island. This program—called Circle Justice—is based on Native American traditions that provide healing for the criminal mind. To avoid serious jail time, Cole resolves to go. While there, Cole is mauled by a mysterious white bear and left for dead. Thoughts of his abusive parents, helpless Peter, and his violent anger cause him to examine the root of his troubled ways.

Author Ben Mikaelson delivers a poignant depiction of the vicious cycle of violence and one boy's journey to healing.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, School, Adventure, Middle Grade, Survival

289 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 9, 2001

Reviews

[karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

if we were just judging the first half of this book, the rating would be higher. the second half of this book really just irritated me, and made me wary of reading the sequel, which i have already purchased.

oops.

the first half is about an angry kid, taking out his rage on other people. he reminded me of that kid from that svu episode with luke perry and sara gilbert who was all hyperactive lunatic raaaar-child. but this kid's rage caused him to beat another boy so severely, he has irreparable brain damage. and rather than incarcerating him, the decision is made to try out an alternative form of therapy/punishment based on native american traditions. so even though he is in minnesota, he gets shipped off to an island off the coast of alaska and...um... left there. he has a perfunctory shelter and some food and he will be checked in on periodically, but the idea is that he live alone for a year, to figure out his place in the circle of life and what consequences are all about.

makes sense, right?

cole thinks so. he also thinks he is going to swim off the island and escape, so he burns all the food and shelter and clothing he has been left, and tries to swim away.

anyone think this is a good idea?

this kid does some incredibly stupid things because of his rage. and the consequences he learns about (and this is all back-cover stuff, so i am not ruining anything) involve what happens when you are alone on an island and a bear comes along and mauls you severely. and while he is lying there, post-maul these birds come along and eat the stringy flesh bordering his wounds. aaarrgghh gross!! see - birds are bad,and like my cat, if they were bigger, they would eat us. sans doute. and that is the best part of the whole book.

all you bird-apologists, suck on that!

but after all the cool bloody stuff, the end (read: second half) got a little more touchy-feely than i generally like. it's like house which is really good when it has blood coming out of people's eyes and stuff, but very bad whenever characters have to have any emotional backstory. stick to the carnage, please.

i have no problem with redemption or character-growth, but sometimes things feel like they are being forced in a way that is implausible or uncomfortable-feeling, and i found myself giggling a little at the second part of this book.

but we have seen time and time again that i have a cold soul - this is probably better than i am making it seem. so go ahead and read it and tell me all about how wrong i am.

come to my blog!

[Melinda Worfolk · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so problematic. The author makes reference to supposedly Tlingit traditions, but they're not based on anything the Tlingit actually do. They don't just work with the courts to banish young offenders to remote islands and be all, "Well, I'll be back in a few weeks to see if you're still alive! See ya, kid!" The "magical wise Indigenous elder" trope is really, really problematic, especially when the author doesn't take the time to accurately represent the Indigenous culture they’re writing about.

The writing and characterization are also really clunky. Cole goes from being a cliche of a troubled youth to being a cliche of a saintly reformed delinquent. Argh! And the events on the island at the beginning are by turns ludicrous and gratuitously disgusting. I can't say I needed to read a description of what it's like to eat a live mouse. Or have seagulls eat your flesh while you're alive. And in a book aimed at ten year olds??? God help us.

I don't know, my students (50% of whom are Indigenous) really like it. I don't think I'll use it again, honestly. That will teach me: always preview the entire book, not just the first few chapters. Dammit!
—————
Here are some links to info about actual Tlingit justice practices (on request from Kaitlyn in the comments below—GoodReads wouldn’t let me paste links into a reply):

A link to an info brochure by the Teslin Tlingit Peacemaker Court: https://www.ttc-teslin.com/applicatio....

Another link about Teslin Tlingit Peacemaker Court: https://mappingtheway.ca/stories/rest...

A link describing the Organized Village of Kake (Tlingit) Circle Peacemaking: http://www.tribaljustice.org/places/t...

[Mariah Roze · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book with my students during reading class and they really enjoyed it. I teach students with Intellectual Disabilities that are high school students, but are at an upper elementary reading level.

This book was interesting to both my males and my females. One student enjoyed the book so much that she read ahead and finished it and then finished the second book, all by the time the class finished the first book. I enjoyed this book enough that I want to read the second book this summer :)

Cole, the main character had a really tough childhood. Both parents were alcoholics and his dad was abusive, while his mom turned the other cheek. Cold didn't know how to appropriately handle situations, since his parents did a poor job of showing him how. When Cole got mad one day he severely injuring Peter Driscal in an empty parking lot. This put him be in major trouble. Instead of going directly to jail, Cole was given an alternative: a one-year banishment to a remote Alaskan island. A group of people come together to decide his punishment. This group is called Circle Justice. Being sent to a remote Island in Alaska was a Native American tradition that provided healing for people in criminal situations. While there, Cole was mauled by the mysterious spirit bear and left for dead. This caused him to reconsider and think about his life and what he had done to Peter. Throughout the book Cole grew and changed, while living on his own in Alaska.

This was a really good book that I suggest to anyone that likes or reads books at upper elementary/middle school level. I can't wait to read the second book!

[Sarah Jama · Rating 1 out of 5]

COLES ASS SHOULDA WENT TO JAIL - I DONT KNOW WHY THEY SENT HIM TO A REMOTE ISLAND !?Also tell me why like 638426 chapters are just describing him lying on the ground after getting mauled by the bear that he taunted. I honestly didn't feel sorry for him whatsoever in this book. Literally the book - described his environment in like 20 different $#@&$? ways as he's just lying on the goddamn floor for like 1/2 the book. Overall wouldn't recommend to ANYONE

[Sam Kabo Ashwell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cole, a very generic juvenile delinquent from a very generic abusive family, is generically filled with rage and lies; he appears on course for a life perpetually in and out of prison, but then he gets drawn into the alternative Circle Justice system. Somehow this gets him shipped out to a remote island in Southeast Alaska to be outdoorsy for a year, mostly alone but occasionally visited by Tlingit mentors who disgorge a steady stream of tough love and folksy wisdom. Cole screws up immediately, burns his cabin down and gets himself mauled by a spirit bear (a colour phase of black bear, although the mauling seems cribbed from grizzly attacks.) Barely escaping death and badly injured, he's given a second chance and in short order is disgorging his own folksy wisdom, indistinguishable in tone from the previous folksy wisdom. The bear continues to appear at dramatically appropriate moments.

So right off we have a Book By A White Person About Native American Wisdom, a Book About The Mystic Healing Spirit Of The Charismatic Megafauna. This doesn't predispose me to be generous to the book's other qualities. There's a sort of sketchy thread about the importance of forgiveness where it's sort of implied that Cole should, y'know, stop blaming his father for abusing him. And it's very hard to care much about Cole when his problems and psychoses are very much the stuff of made-for-TV Lifetime movies; there's really not a single detail to distinguish him from a cardboard cut-out juvenile delinquent.

As YA outdoorsy-survival fiction, it's no My Side of the Mountain; the details are mostly glossed over. Aside from the black bear mauling like a grizzly, the Alaskan setting is accurately rendered, although, again, without a vast amount of detail.

[minhal ༊·˚⋆ · Rating 1 out of 5]

oh hey look it’s the WORST BOOK ON THE PLANET MS ROACH I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR MAKING US READ THIS IN GRADE 9

[Kiwi · Rating 1 out of 5]

THIS REVIEW (MAY) CONTAINS SPOILERS. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I didn't like this book. The main character, Cole, is unlikeable right from the beginning when he smashes Peter's head into the sidewalk. As the book goes on, you start to learn a bit about Cole's past. You learn his father beat him. That's why he's like that, that's why he is violent. Honestly, they tried to make Cole seem like a better person throughout the book, but it didn't work for me. I still thought Cole was a bad person. He was still violent, but he just didn't lash out. And since Cole was the only character in it at least half the time, this made me not like that book.
Onto the bear. Obviously by the title and name there would be a bear in it. But the bear was hardly in it. Sure, it was a huge part of the story, but we maybe read about it's appearance it five times, and the times we 'saw' it, the bear just walked away a couple of seconds later.
Now for Garvey. I'm not sure about him. At the beginning what they said about his past was very vague, and then, when they went into it a little deeper, I was still left with questions.
The plot. Now, I didn't like the plot much. It would not happen where someone almost kills someone and they send them to an island. They would go to jail. I didn't like the 'Circle Justice'. They go and meet and decide that they'll send him to and island instead of jail to help him 'change'. I honestly don't think Cole should've gotten a second chance right there, especially since he almost killed Peter. Say that happened to someone who was an adult, same situation, the adult would've gone to jail. Because, almost killing someone, is in fact, a crime. Cole had also been in trouble before. Okay, so, after they take him to the island, they build him a nice cabin and leave him there.
The island. I liked this part in the book. I liked the island, and I wish the author would've described the island more. He described it a little, but never went into depth.

These are my opinions. Please don't think I'm trying to be rude, honestly, I'm not. I just didn't like it. If you liked it, great, I'm glad you found a book you liked. I'm just giving my honest opinion.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a phenomenal book. Through out the year almost all of my kids read it and usually in a day or two. The story tells of a boy, Cole, who has an extremely misguided life due to his family situation. After beating a kid close to death he is sent to live on an island by himself for a year trying to heal his anger. This was his only alternative to going to jail. The book is intense and a bit graphic in Chapter 8 when he encounters a spirit bear. The books sheds great light into the healing process of anger and finding the will to control one's self. It reminds us that ultimately we are the ones that decide who we are and who we may become. Our surroundings and other people only affect us if we let them for good or for bad.

[Caleb Fogler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cole Matthews is a bully at school and repeat petty criminal and one day takes it too far when he brutally attacks another kid for snitching. Peter is left with life altering injuries and the prosecution is looking to try Cole as an adult to finally send him to prison. But Cole is given a unique opportunity to grow as a person and prove that he wants to change by being exiled to a remote Alaskan island for a year. Cole fakes sympathy and tries to escape the island his first chance he gets but is attacked by a white (albino grizzly?) bear and left for dead. Cole must reevaluate his actions and control his anger if he wants to avoid prison and stay on the island.

I read this at least over a decade ago, probably way longer. But I read it as a kid and while I remember it being great I was concerned that I would no longer enjoy it as I have a bit of a higher standard for what I read now and I am also not the intended audience. I was so wrong, and honestly I’m glad I reread it as an adult because it is a good reminder of how easily it is to hurt people and blame others for our actions.

Cole and Peter are both teenagers in this book and Cole is a major ass in the beginning and really only deserves to go to prison. However two patient members of the community try to help him grow and give him a chance when others won’t. As we follow Cole on this journey we remember that no one is perfect and sometimes pain can lead to healing.

This book is less than 300 pages and it reads very quickly and is not a difficult read. Great book to get out of a reading slump.

[Jennifer Lavoie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. No matter how many times I read it, I enjoy it each time. Cole is such a well-written character, and all that he goes through is incredible. This was the first year I actually got to teach the book and I'm glad. The students found his experiences horrific, and we were able to have many great discussions on Cole, his situation, and the book itself.

There is a lot to be learned from this book, whether you're the bully or the victim, and I think this book should be read by all students, no matter what their background. It would be a shame to miss out on such a fantastic novel about survival, healing, and forgiveness.

[Colin McCarthy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wasn’t very fond of Touching Spirit Bear. It kept changing what was happening and it was weird. This book was a young adult book. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone. It had good description but it could have been better. We had to read the book for school and most of my friends didn’t like the book.

[Catherine Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Touching Spirit Bear is a novel geared towards ten year olds. (though while reading it, the idea of fourth or fifth graders reading about seagulls eating a boy’s flesh made me a bit uncomfortable!) It tells the story of Cole Mathews, an abused, arrogant, aggressive high school boy who has committed many crimes in his short lifetime on Earth. To avoid jail after brutally assaulting a boy, he joins Circle Justice, a group dedicated to helping criminals repent and change. He is banished to an island (which I thought was a little far-fetched, I mean, would you send a juvenile delinquent to an island all alone for a year and trust them to survive on their own? NO WAY!) and gets a few “visits” from a huge white grizzly bear, which is the Spirit Bear mentioned in the title. He is mauled by the Bear after Cole attempts to kill it, and lies on the island alone until some members of Circle Justice come to check on him. Guided by Edwin and Garvey, two “mentors” to him, he returns to the island on a quest to once again see the Spirit Bear.

[Sophia Minetola]

This book is about a juvenile boy named Cole. He gets sent to a island with nothing but a shelter and some clothes and other supplies. The first day he burns down the shelter. After days he sees the Spirit bear and gets mauled (he deserved it). After he goes to the hospital he goes back to the island and everyone lived happily ever after the end. (There’s more I just hate spoilers).

This book was horrible. The only reason I read this garbage is because we were being tested on it. I know you weren’t supposed to like Cole (and I didn’t) I despised him. This book was boring. My favorite part is when he got mauled by the bear. This book is stupid but you are able to tolerate the characters after a while (they numb you down until your brain turns to mush)

I don’t recommend this book unless you like stupid, boring, intolerable books. If you do the this book is PERFECT for you. This book is for middle schoolers and is very descriptive in some parts.

[Gerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! Theres a lot you can learn from it. Although I admit theres a lot of wierd things in it. but it helped me realize it was important to control my temper. This is a book that people with anger problems should read.

[Cynthia · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was an interesting book. The plot was very predictable, but that might just be me. I personally thought that the plot was simple. The plot was predictable in the way that the main charecter does something bad, something happens to him, or he does something, and then he's forgiven. It's not realistic at all. Like, would you really forgive somebody who bashed your head into the sidewalk and almost killed you?!
I think the theme of this book is empathy. Why? Well, there are many parts in the book that suggest this theme. For example, there's this part in the book after Cole gets mauled by the spirit bear, he sees the sparrow chicks that he had previously loathed. However, this time, when he sees the sparrow chicks he feels bad for them and mourns their death. He also connects with the chicks. On page eighty two, Mikaelsen writes “Did the birds’ insignificant little existences have any meaning at all? Or did his?” This shows empathy because Cole is connecting with the little birds. He is wondering if the birds’ existences mean something, that if it’s fate or destiny that guides them. In contrast to this is if they are all just randomly placed in life, and dealt some cards, good or bad. Cole also relates back to the birds when he makes the decision that he wants to live and makes things better. In the text it says “A worm was food, food was energy, and energy was life. The baby begged simply for life. … It didn’t matter who was at fault for his dismal life. All that mattered was living. Cole wanted to live again and once again make choices.” This shows that, without the birds and relating and empathizing with them, Cole simply would’ve died on that island. He would’ve never had the chance to repent and make amends for his mistakes and sins. Cole also would’ve never had the chance to see and help Peter. Because he emphasized with the birds, he decided that he wanted to live and make decisions for himself again. All this is because he saw the dead sparrow chicks and empathize with them.
There is also another part in the book when Peter starts hitting him and he relates with how Peter felt when he hit him.
What do you think? Feel free to reply with what you think the theme of the book is about!

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally a guy book! And so worth your time, guy or girl. Based on the Justice Circles performed by the natives in Alaska, this story involves a young man named Cole. His life is headed south when he violently beats up another young man in a brutal manner. His punishment is bordering a prison or jail sentence when his social worker decides to offer him a chance at redemption... he must be banished to an island for a year and learn to understand himself, others, and the world around him. In his efforts the reader gets to reflect on his or her own faults and analyze the anger or animosity he or she may be harboring towards other. It is in this book the native Justice Circle teaches Cole how to cope with the hurt inside that pushed him to hate, and through the mystical Spirit Bear, he comes to terms with who he is and learns some valuable lessons. This story contains violence, graphic bloody scenes, but teaches about the human heart and how we are truly the captains of our emotions and heart. Do not read this just for a casual read, this book really taught me how to shed harmful resentments from my heart and has more to offer to those seeking a revival of the soul (of sorts). I recommend this to any troubled youth who might be looking for understanding and wanting to change their life for the better. Because of the graphic nature of the book, more mature audiences should be encouraged to read.

[Griffin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was painful to read. The characters are all very one-dimensional, even though the book is entirely about this kid's emotional/spiritual transformation--there's just no complexity or realism to it. The dialogue was incredibly stilted and melodramatic, with no subtlety whatsoever. And while it can be effective to bend reality in a book, I found the plot development to be distractingly unrealistic. The ridiculousness of some of these characters and situations pulled me out of the experience. Also, I was uncomfortable with the way the author used the "wise Native elder" trope as a vehicle for the main character's development.

It is written for children, after all, so maybe I'm judging it a little too harshly. Still, I don't understand why so many people are in love with this book.

[Elliot Reinking · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was very slow at the start. It is about Cole Matthews, a juvenile delinquent, who smashes Peter’s head into the cement. He goes to court. They decided to give him to circle justice, a peace group. They send him to an island. There, Cole is mauled by the Spirit Bear, a mystical creature. Cole is rescued and flown to a Minneapolis hospital. After rehab, he is given a second shot at the island. This time he truly changes. He faces his problems head on and invites Peter to the island. Will the dispute be solved? You will have to read to find out! This story was okay. The storyline was well developed but was not too action packed. I would not have finished if it wasn’t a class book. I recommend this to any adult readers that love survival stories!

[Michelle Inman]

Middle school me rating: 5/5, best book ever

Adult me rating: 1/5, praise the Lord I am finally finished


I thought rereading this book as an adult would be fun and nostalgic. It wasn’t. This book can join sequence purses and layered Hollister camis on the list of things better left in middle school.

[Nate Felsmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was scary.

[Starlight gold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this book was amazing and life changing
This book taught me anger is answer to problem

[CJ O'Leary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not Very good.

[Jeffery Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story weaves some Native American mythology and customs into the troubled life of teen Cole Matthews. Great descriptions and meaningful changes in the protagonist.

[Greg]

Cole Matthews is an angry teen who has been caught stealing and fighting for years. One day Cole runs into a fellow classmate, Peter, and fights him. During this fight Cole smashes Peter's head into the sidewalk and causes permanent brain damage. Instead of jail time or being send to a special home, Cole is offered Circle Justice: a system based on Native American traditions that attempts to provide healing for the criminal offender. Cole plays along with the sentence. It is only after he gets mauled close to death by a mysterious bear of Native American legend that he begins accept responsibility for his actions and change for the better.

I found this book to be very far fetch and unrelateable to suburban teens. It was very disappointing to see how Cole makes a mockery of the Circle Justice and opportunities that he was given. After Cole spends his first few weeks on the island he burns down his only shelter and says "If it weren't for his parents, Peter, and the stupid Healing Circle, he wouldn't even be here." (45). Cole's feeling of the Healing Circle, based on Native American traditions, never seemed to have an impact on Cole and the changes that he made in the end. If Cole Matthews had never been mauled by the bear, he never would have changed.

So I questioned, what was the point of bringing in the "Native American" element into this story? This element made just as much impact on Cole as living on a farm had on Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie on Fox's The Simple Life. It seemed as though a white kid was just dropped into this situation and was just supposed to magically discover himself.

After reading this book I didn't see what a teenager was supposed to learn from it. Yes, Cole was a changed boy at the end of the story, but he was mauled by a bear within inches of his life. I saw this as Cole's sole motivation for change, which is one I don't think I would ever tell one of my troubled students to duplicate.

[Sydney Cornwall · Rating 1 out of 5]

Touching Spirit Bear is about Cole, a kid with horrible anger problems, and the consequences that he faces because of it. He as grown up as an abused child, and as a result, he can't seem to take responsibility for himself and his actions. He ends up beating a kid's head on the sidewalk, causing brain damage, and this leads him to a decision: jail time or exile on a remote island for a year. He picks the latter, and the first couple days he's on the island, he gets brutally mauled by the 'spirit bear.' This changes his entire attitude and outlook on life, and he ends up making reconciliations with himself, his father, and the kid that he so maniacally beat up.

Cole was a really annoying protagonist. I just had a super hard time sympathizing with him, which is probably why I didn't like the book and found it painful to read. I felt like the author emphasized his anger a little too much, especially when showing what Cole was thinking. It got to a certain point where it was just annoying. I get it. He has anger issues. He hates his dad. I get it. Let's move on. And then his transition to crazy angry child to thoughtful young man was a little too fast. The relationships were utterly unrealistic. Not a big fan.

[Fallen*63 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Touching Spirit Bear is about a juvenile delinquent named Cole Matthews. He has been stealing and lying for years, but everyone has had it out of hm when he beats Peter Driscal's skull into the sidewalk for ratting out on him. Peter then has speech and coordination issues. Cole is given a chance in "Circle Justice" in which he lives in isolation on an Alaskan island for one year. At first, he did this only to avoid jail. He even tries to escape the island, but fails. He is later mauled by a white bear, known to not exist on the island. He is taken to the hospital, but is then sent to a detention center. Even so, the Circle Justice decides to give Cole a second chance on the island. This time, though, Cole is prepared for change. Eventually, Peter is invited to stay on the island, where they eventually become friends.

I think the authors purpose for writing this book was to entertain, but to teach a lesson in the process. I think the lesson is that anger cannot be completely gotten rid of, but you should still try to change and fix the mistakes you have made.

[Hope Keenan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ben Mikaelsen´s novel Touching Spirit Bear is about a 15 year old boy named Cole. Cole is always angry, at his parents, at other people, and about how much he hates his life. He beats up one of his classmates, a boy named Peter, and as a result of this beating, Peter has permanent damage. In an attempt to avoid jail, Cole goes through a program called Circle Justice, which focuses on helping kids instead of sending them to jail. He is sent to an island in Alaska, completely on his own. This is to try and help him learn to control his anger. One theme suggested in the book is everyone has anger, but you must learn to control it.
I personally really liked this book. I found the plot very interesting, and was written with detail, as well as the characters.

[Hannah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope. Nope nope nope absolutely not no thank you nope. Gosh, why did I reread this? Cole is a dumb, angry idiot with no personality. The whole book is so boring. Mikaelsen takes himself way too seriously. No.

[Kelly Basque · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story and can't wait to share it with my students this year! I will also find my boys from last year who struggled to find something "good" to read and demand they read this!

[ava]

i had to read this for school