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. Sam Kabo Ashwell. 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. 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. 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. 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.
Desperate to avoid prison, Cole fakes humility and agrees 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 own anger cause him to examine his actions and seek redemption—from the spirit bear that attacked him, from his victims, and, most importantly, from himself.
Ben Mikaelsen paints a vivid picture of a juvenile offender, examining the roots of his anger without absolving him of responsibility for his actions, and questioning a society in which angry people make victims of their peers and communities.
Touching Spirit Bear is a poignant testimonial to the power of a pain that can destroy, or lead to healing. His novels have been nominated for and won many state reader's choice awards. Ben's articles and photos appear in numerous magazines around the world. Ben lives near Bozeman, Montana, with his pound black bear, Buffy. Ghost of Spirit Bear. Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials. Sign Up. Pub Date: Feb. Page Count: Publisher: HarperCollins. Show all comments. More by Ben Mikaelsen. Page Count: Publisher: Candlewick.
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