Touching Spirit Bear book review

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen was an interesting book about Cole Matthews, a young boy going through a hard life. He caused many problems in the community and when he finally almost beat Peter Driscal to death, his town was tired of his anger and put him in the circle of justice. After everyone agreed to send him to an isolated island in Alaska, Cole was mauled by a huge, white bear. When Edwin and Harvey came to check on Cole they noticed his wounds and took him to a near doctor. Six months later, Cole returned back to the circle of justice to see if he would be sentenced to jail. Even though noone wanted Cole Matthews to return back to the island, he did and had to build his hut and survive on his own. He did many activities to overcome his anger, including soaking in the creek, carrying the ansestor rock up the hill and rolling it back down, and carving designs on a totem pole. Now that Cole started to fix his anger issues, he realized there was no use in being angry all the time. As I read this story, I learned to be patient in everything I do and to not take things or people for granted.