Jason -- Blogmeister

Touching Spirit Bear is about a 15-year old boy. His name is Cole Mathews. He has done lots of terrible crimes. His latest crime is smashing Peter Driscal’s head against the sidewalk. Cole’s punishment is either jail or one year on an Alaskan remote island. Cole chooses the island. With the help of Edwin and Garvey, Cole try’s to get rid of his anger. But during the one year long visit he sees a rare seen bear. He gets so angry that the bear isn’t afraid of him. So he decides to attack the bear. At the end of the battle Cole is defeated. Will the attack do nothing but damage or will it save his soul.

I think the author’s message is that people deserve a second chance to change.

Cole Matthews is 15 years old. This boy has been stealing, fighting, and people up, and hurting people in any way either phisically or emotionally for so long. Cole catches Peter Driscal in a parking lot where he starts a fight. Peter may have permanent brain damage now and Cole is in deep trouble. Cole is offered Circle Justice a program based on First nation's. In prison as his other alternative. Cole blames his alcholic mom, his abusive dad and Peter but himself. Cole gets a one year banishment on a remote Alaskan island. There Cole, is alone on an island mauled by a spirit bear. Cole waits for his death. To survive he should stop blaming others and take responsibility of himself and his life. Cole gets rescued. Did the attack of the spirit bear save him, or did it ruin his life?

I think that the author's message is that you can change your attitude, only you because you are in charge of your life. I learned that you can never get rid of your anger and you can't always be happy, and you always need to forgive others esspecially your self.

This book is called ''Touching Spirit Bear''. This book is about a guy named Cole Matthews,who have been in trouble with the law half of his life.Cole beat up a guy named Peter Driscal because Peter told the police that Cole robbed and trashed a hardware store.Cole has a choice,either he goes to jail or join circle of justice.It was recommended by Garvey.Cole chose Circle of Justice.When Cole was at the circle of justice meeting,Garvey recommended that Cole should go to an island in Alaska for a year.Some of the character in the book is Cole,a fifteen year old from Minneapolis,Garvey,Cole's parole officer,Cole's mom, care more about her appearance and shes afraid of her husband,Edwin,a Tlingit elder who brings food to Cole at the Island and Cole's dad, an alcoholic who beats Cole.
I think the authors message is their are many kind of angers.The part that showed me the lesson is when Cole burned down his shelter at the Island.The part that really spoke to me is when Cole said ''the world was beautiful''.What I learned is that you have yo learn to forgive the people who made a mistake to you because nobody is perfect.

In the book touching Spirit Bear by: Ben Mikaelsen, the main character: Cole Matthews is a fifteen year old boy who went through many struggles to learn how to forgive. Cole was full of anger and hate, he was very disrespectful to people and didn’t care about them. But when he beat up Peter Driscal and smashed his head on the sidewalk. He got banished on an Alaskan Island for one year. But he didn't even last 3 months, because when he saw a spirit bear on the island he intended to kill it and succeed. But when the spirit bear mauled him making him in a crucial condition. He got sent back. But he wanted a second chance so he went to the island again. Edwin, a Tlingit elder, and Garvey, helped Cole to forgive and change. Then he started to change and learn how to forgive. But after he heard that Peter Driscal has tried to commit suicide 2 times already. Cole thought it will be a good idea if Peter could come to the island and live with him. But Peter still doesn't trust Cole after what he did. So Garvey is staying them to make sure nothing bad happens. At first Peter didn't want to go anywhere near Cole, but after a couple of weeks Peter is starting to see that Cole has changed, and it's starting to be a wonderful friendship.

I think the Author's Message is about forgiveness. Because it's the one that I understand the most and I think that it's really important to learn how to forgive. Like on how Cole learned how to forgive his dad and Peter. Forgiveness is really important because I think that when you learned how to forgive, it feels better because you forgave that person and now you understand them a bit more. Like on how Cole understand his dad when he forgave him.