Touching Spirit Bear

In Touching Spirit Bear, Edwin and Garvey taught Cole several important lessons regarding healing and forgiveness using metaphors. Before Cole was sent to the island, Garvey used cake ingredients...

Cole's so desperate to escape the island that he doesn't take the tide into account. He ends up swimming against the tide, and the more the struggles, the less progress he makes. Suddenly, Cole...

When Edwin first meets Cole in Drake, he takes one look at him and, pointing an accusatory finger in his direction, tells him to go and put his clothes on inside out. This strange request is...

In Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, the protagonist, Cole Matthews, attacks fellow teenager Peter Driscal. In order to avoid jail time, Cole enters a Native American justice program called...

Touching Spirit Bear is a novel written by Ben Mikaelsen. The main character in this book is a young boy named Cole Matthews. Cole has a lot of anger issues, and he often uses violence to deal with...

The spirit bear is actually a subspecies of a black bear. They are called Kermode Bears after the man who studied them. They are NOT a form of polar bear; their white color comes from a recessive...

In chapter 9, Cole continues to suffer due to the bear attack. He passes in and out of consciousness near a spruce tree. A tiny bird’s nest on one of the branches catches Cole’s attention. He...

The link or hook between Touching Spirit Bear and coming of age is that our main character, Cole Matthews, is just 15 years old when he is sent to begin his year of banishment on an island in...

According to Garvey, the Hearing Circle is where people gather together to look for solutions. After Cole caps off his most recent felonious activity by beating up a boy who reported him, it...

The detention center is meant to detain juveniles who have committed crimes and keep them off the street until they go to trial or jail. Cole has been in trouble many times in the past. However,...

Circle Justice is an alternative to prison. It is meant to heal, not punish. “Circle Justice is for those ready for healing. It’s not an easy way out. In fact, a healing path is often much...

All four major conflicts of literature are in Ben Mikaelsen's coming-of-age novel. Man vs. Society The protagonist, Cole Matthew, a juvenile delinquent has agrees to be part of a rehabilitation...

The theme is the importance of forgiveness. Forgiveness is important in this novel because Cole has to forgive his parents, Peter has to forgive him, and he has to forgive himself. The novel’s...

Cole becomes a better person because he stops being violent and blaming others for his problems. When the story starts, Cole is a very angry young man. He is facing a jail sentence for severely...

Writing a hook ("attention getter") can be a very difficult thing to do. Writing is hard work, and sometimes putting down that first sentence is the most difficult part of the entire essay or...

A genre can best be described as a category of something, usually art, music, or literature. In music, there are divisions such as jazz, classical, and rap, and these are called genres. There are...

Angry, delinquent teen Cole Matthews is the main character in Ben Mikaelsen's novel Touching Spirit Bear. When Cole first arrives at the island he is supposed to spend a year on as a part of his...

As Cole prepares to enter the Circle Justice program, he must have a sponsor to do so. Garvey, as a probation officer, has experience with young offenders and has a realistic or skeptical...

The main character of Ben Mikaelson's Touching Spirit Bear is a teenage boy named Cole Matthews. To avoid going to jail, it is decided that he will spend a year on a remote island in Alaska, where...

The book, Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen, is full of conflicts for the protagonist, Cole. Cole is abused by his father, and his mother does nothing to help him. When he gets in trouble, he...

Since his return to the island, Cole has been going for regular soaks in the cold water of the pond. Edwin instructs him to do this as a way to soak the anger out of him. In the final chapter,...

In Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, Cole Matthews chooses to undergo a form of justice called "Circle Justice" to atone for smashing a boy's skull into the sidewalk. "Circle Justice" is a...

One of the book’s themes is that you must forgive yourself in order to move on with your life. Cole was a very angry kid. His anger was a result of self-loathing. His parents were both negligent...

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelson is a novel that resonates with young adult readers. Cole Matthews is filled with rage, and he steals and fights as a result of it. When he catches Peter...

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen is a coming-of-age story about a young man named Cole who undergoes a healing treatment on a deserted island as punishment for violently attacking another boy....

The main conflict is an internal conflict Cole has with himself. Cole is a very angry kid. It is because Cole is so angry that he gets into trouble. Cole is at war with himself. He is trying to...

Ben Mikaelson's young adult novel Touching Spirit Bear tells the story of an angry and troubled young man named Cole. At the age of fifteen, Cole is in enough trouble with the law that he only has...

Fifteen-year-old Cole Matthews is the main character of Ben Mikaelsen's novel Touching Spirit Bear. He is the protagonist of the story, but for most of the novel he is busy antagonizing anyone he...

Touching Spirit Bear conveys ideas about the importance of forgiveness, sincerity, and compassion. The idea that forgiveness is a dual process is emphasized through the characters of Peter and...

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen is a story that deals with a teenage main character in isolation, and also presents issues with which he is dealing in his regular life. Among these issues...

Garvey is explaining to Cole that he cannot continue to maintain his angry attitude if he wishes to live on the island and be successful. The idea that there is "not room for both" stems from the...

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelson is a novel that resonates with young adult readers. Cole Matthews is filled with rage, and he steals and fights as a result of it. When he catches Peter...

I have two more ideas for you that I just could not think of when I answered your question: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements Of all the books I suggested, it...

Cole has got into trouble. Again. He's assaulted a young boy by the name of Peter, and is within a hair's breadth of going to jail in Minneapolis. But he's been given a second chance—with strings...

Cole was unable to manage his anger and blamed his violent outburst and bitterness on his parents. He blamed his father for hitting him and his mother for doing nothing about it. Cole meted out the...

I just posted a true/false, matching, and short answer test over Touching Spirit Bear to the documents tab. It's a "quick" test that I used primarily to test comprehension for independent reading....