Touching spirit bear

Touching Spirit bear

Touching spirit bear , the novel by Ben Mikaelsen is a fictional story about a trouble making kid, Cole, who gets in so much trouble that he has to go to a island in Alaska to experience solemn months. In his experience in the island, he gets mauled by a bear and witnesses cold nights alone. It is a life changing experience, and throughout the whole entire book, he really changes. This novel, just seemed like a corny middle school book, because of the parts where Cole danced around the fire, and i think it was just some stuff the author put in the book for the younger audience the book was aimed for. I think this book is not for people in high school.

Cole's last shot was used up when he beat up Peter, the kid who snitched on him for breaking into a hard ware store. Cole wanted revenge so he badly injured Peter. Peter was messed up for years and he had to do therapy for the injury's. He became messed up in the head and attempted suicide twice. Cole really hurt this kid physical and mentally, and the sad thing about it is that he didn't even care after it happened. He just blames the world for all of his anger. Most of his anger though comes from his parents. His parents are both drinkers and they do not support or care about Cole as much as they should, Garvey, the man who is helping Cole out can see this. He is the main one who believes in Cole and really puts alot of effort into helping Cole become a better person.

The island that Cole is temporally on is a remote, small and very wild part of Alaska. It seems like it is the kind of place that the Native Americans lived on, and it hasn't been covered up by concrete or buildings and malls. This seems like a good place to be alone for long periods of time. In this book, that is exactly what it is. And for Cole, it works. This whole idea for Cole was Garvey's idea, Garvey seems like a pushover in Cole's eyes. But he is a really nice man who pushes Cole's negative words away.

3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?
This book has many weaknesses in my opinion, first off the kid Cole is an angry and disrespectful kid, and i didn't like him. I just didn't want to read about how rude he is and how he defies authority. But then i found out that he has a reason, His parents cause him to be really cruel to everybody and every thing. For example, both his parents are drinkers and his dad has beat him. His dad, of course, denies it in their meetings, and his mother says nothing when she has an opportunity to admit the truth. At the meetings, they both really try hard to look as if they are great parents, and Cole is just a complete mess-up. They don't seem to care for Cole, but they only show there true colors to each other, and they hide it from all others. I don't personally like how this whole section of the book is,

Another really weird thing is that Cole wakes up early every mourning, unlike when he was at home. He then walks up to a mountain, and he baths in freezing cold water. I don't really understand why, if this was real, he Probably would not get in freezing cold water early in the mourning. Water from my shower is too cold for me when i first get in. This kid . before he started to change would sleep in on the island, and be lazy all day. He set fire to the shelter some one made for him. I don't see him having enough enthusiasm to get in the water. This book, seems fake to me, i still, after finishing it dislike the whole subject and i don't see this bad kid learning all the things he apparently has learned.

14. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)

This book is completely for kids in middle school. It is very easy reading and it doesn't require much knowledge to understand everything, something a higher educated reader looks for. So in my opinion, this novel is kind of boring. I can't get into it much, i didn't understand why Garvey would put so much time and effort into a kid like Cole, but it did work out for him. I think my brother in middle school would enjoy this book much more than i did, but still, not that much. I'm glad now that i am done with the book that bored me for 3 weeks. For a 7th grade essay, i can see a kid writing a good piece on this story, because it is easy reading material. That makes it a good book for younger kids. I think that the author wrote this book thinking of a young audience. I read this book, starting out with the intentions of enjoying myself, but that failed, but i dont have to worry about it anymore. My next book will be much more entertaining. This book lacks a sense of humor, and action. It topic wasn't good in my view, and i would not recommend this to any one else. The author needed to add more intriguing information for a older audience, so this book could be relative for a reader in high school. It is clearly for young kids though.Maybe this authors other books are alot more exciting to a different area and age of viewers, but i rather not read more of his books, because this book made me lose faith in this authors writing style. Maybe ill tell my brother to read this book, because e needs to do reading for his school, and this would be better than all the video games he plays, every day.