"Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen is a book I always know my Grade 7 students will love.
The first time I read it aloud they literally came running to the Library to hear the next installment about Cole Matthews and his exile to an island off Alaska for his part in a brutal act of bullying. His near death experience caused by the Spirit Bear, his own stubbornness and stupidity and his subsequent redemption touched them deeply but it was even more profound as life imitated art and the news stories of the day told of a circle justice trial taking place in our city as we were reading about it in the book. Powerful.
And now I have just finished "Ghost of Spirit Bear", the sequel, which follows Cole and Peter as they attempt to pick up their lives at their old high school. While they both have changed Cole also knows how difficult it is to control his temper in his old environment where violence and gangs taunt him constantly. From survival in a remote environment in the first book to urban survival this story is brilliant in showing how high schools can be a place of fear for many and how Cole realizes it is not enough to have changed himself. He has to change his world.
Another gripping and moving story. Read it.
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