Touching Spirit Bear

By Ben Mikaelsen
Reviewed by Hillahn S.
2 available - check it out of the NVHS Library


Cole Matthew was given the choice of prison or the Native America Circle of Justice when he smashed Peter Driscals skull into the pavement. This was not the first time that Cole had been threatened with this punishment for his abusive behavior. He often got into fights and was always stealing from this place or that and he never seemed to care about the consequences. Now he was on his way to an secluded island in the middle of Alaska to spend one whole year alone in isolation as his punishment. Cole however was not planning on staying on the island. The first chance he got to escape the island he started swimming the many miles to the main land but he didn’t make it, he was attacked by a spirit bear. This bear was not real however and during Coles stay on the island he saw the bear a few more times. These siteings made up his mind that all the old Indian rituals, which had been showed to him a were claimed to help heal his mind, were really worth it and he began to do them. Soon Cole found that they were working and he became a calm respectable boy. The Indian who had brought Cole to the island happened to have committed the same crime and he looked a Coles accomplishments as his own.

I read this book and I thought it was pretty good. I would recommend it for the age group 10 to 13. It is not a very fast moving book. You spend a lot of time just reading about how Cole finally figured out that the old Indian rituals were really helping him. Touching Spirit Bear however is mostly about how being alone with your imagination is far better healing then if you were counseled by other humans. Many kids don’t like reading books for school but if you want a quick fast read then this is a great book.