David Khazzam

EnglishENG1D

Book Review:

‘Touching Spirit Bear’

Book: Touching Spirit Bear

Presented to Mrs. H

Académie de la capitale

June 17, 2013

‘Touching Spirit Bear’

Cole Matthews was a typical obnoxious fifteen year-old juvenile delinquent, robbing stores and bullying students. This was the case, until he met the Spirit Bear. Kermode bears are a type of Western black bear, of which about ten percent have white fur. They are nicknamed Spirit Bears due to this rarity. There are approximately 400-1000 of these Spirit Bears in the world, and they all live off the Coast of British Columbia.

Cole lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with two horrible parents. His father beat him most days, and was usually drunk. His mother stood by passively during these beatings, and did not intervene to help him. With this type of upbringing, it is not very surprising that he beat up a younger fourteen year-old student, Peter. Although this was not his first crime, it was by far his worst. Luckily for him, the city of Minneapolis had

started using a process called the Justice Circle. This process believes that instead of putting an offender into jail after being found guilty, the offender should be helped to “heal”. The Justice Circle decided that Cole should be sent to an isolated island for a year, where he would need to learn to repent for his criminal actions.

This book combines thousand-year-old rituals with modern day problems. The story also takes place on an isolated island, giving it the illusion that the story could take place in any era or time.

The author of Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen, is a Bolivian of Danish descent. He now lives in the United States, where he has lived since the seventh grade. He is no stranger to bullying, but contrary to Cole, he was the victim. In Bolivia, he was subject to racist bullying by the natives there. In Touching Spirit Bear, Ben uses the subject of bullying, but he writes from the opposite point of view, the bully.

Bears are another connection between his life and his book. His late 750 pound bear, Buffy, was, in a way, “[his] own Spirit Bear1”. Both bears are important characters in for each person’s life, and they taught both Cole and Ben important lessons.

Touching Spirit Bear is great book for all ages. Despite being an easy read, it has many different levels of understanding. An eight year-old child could interpret it completely differently than an adult would. Some might just just read the story and be satisfied with that. Others might dig deeper and find the messages woven into the story. The subjects mentioned in the book are deep and profound about forgiveness, trust and repentance. The book is also very amazing and encouraging.

Ben Mikaelsen also wrote a sequel to Touching Spirit Bear, called The Ghost of Spirit Bear. I believe that it is not as good a book as it’s prequel. It touches some of the same subjects as Touching Spirit Bear, however, it solely takes place in the city of Minneapolis and it disappointed me by being much less amazing and encouraging.

Bibliography

http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/ben-mikaelsen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Mikaelsen

http://www.benmikaelsen.com/

Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2001. Print.

http://citationmachine.net/index2.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kermode_bear

1 Dedication page Mikaelsen, Ben. Touching Spirit Bear. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2001. Print.