Touching Spirit Bear Audio CD – Unabridged, March 11, 2008

Great read for all. Especially children from 5th grade up.

I reccomend this book to everyone I know. it's su h an amazing story that will make you laugh and cry and make you reevaluate your life and who you really are and where you belong in this world. the 2nd book ghost of spirit bear is just as good.

What an amazing book. I started this book earlier today when I was a substitute teacher for a 7th grade Language Arts class. They were just finishing this book. I wanted to have an idea of what the kids were reading about so during the planning period and lunch I started to read the book. By the end of the day I was more than halfway done. I just finished this book (less than 12 hour later). I found this book to show great character development. Cole is an angry child. He’s mad at the world and everything in it. His world changed when he brutally attacked another child, Peter. After the attack, Cole is faced with the Circle of Justice. This is something that has been used by native Americans. Cole is banished to an island in Alaska. The book is about his journey to find himself.

I read this book for the first time in seventh grade for my literature class. Rereading it, being an adult now, gave me a new perspective on the events in it.I bought this book nine years later for a reason. It really was as good as I remembered it to be. The messages of taking responsibility for your mistakes and learning to get control of your anger were really strong. Cole being forced into humiliating situations like eating bugs to survive really forced him to become humble in a way that not much else can.Cole's arrogance in the beginning, thinking he could escape, was very realistic. His lack of forethought as to what he would do if he got to land and had a warrant out for his arrest was also very realistic for a hotheaded fifteen year old.I found the dynamic between his parents at the circle meetings to be very relatable, as someone who grew up with abusive parents.Cole's sudden horror at having almost burned the at.oow, the only symbol of trust anyone had ever granted him, was very realistic and understandable.I think there was a missed opportunity at addressing the PTSD that the bear attack must have caused. I find it very hard to believe that he didn't suffer from it.The things I didn't like about this book are few. One of them is the message that everything in life is what you make it. That can be true for a lot of cases, but it's important to remember that no one can turn every instance of suffering into a party just by putting some tomato and pepper onto it. Suffering hurts, and it's unrealistic and damaging to expect people who are suffering to smile through it. Humans have a range of emotions for a reason and consoling others who are hurting with some love laugh love spiel is not going to get you anywhere. Empathy and understanding are important for healthy relationships.While I liked this book, I wouldn't recommend the sequel at all. For any of you considering reading it, go check out my review first.

Loved this book in middle school and continue to read it to this day. A great book related to those with anger issues

I read "Touching Spirit Bear" because a middle schooler I know carries it around with him wherever he goes. I was curious about its impact on him, so I downloaded it onto Kindle. It is a fascinating, challenging, transformative tale of a young man who experiences a complete transformation of the effects of physical abuse, which in him amounted to passing on the abuse to others he perceived as weaker than himself. This book is much like a shamanic journey in which the journeyer experiences a crisis which, when faced and accepted, becomes the catalyst for powerful personal change.This book presents "Circle Justice" as an alternative to punishment. This story, and Circle Justice, can extend hope for those who are discouraged by their inability to change aggressive behavior toward others. It can provide a new way of looking at aggressors for those who have been victimized. It offers us all a vision about the possibility of healing a seemingly intractable soul. While Circle Justice has profound possibilities in our modern world, the particular intervention used in this story (banishing a boy to an Alaskan island) is not an easily replicable or perhaps even desireable intervention for those of us living in modern civilization. But it points us toward some basic principles: 1) Focus on the possibility of transformation as a choice for the person needing the intervention. 2) Make use of nature in healing. 3) Make use of mentors, those who have gone through this before. 4)Allow challenge. Don't sugar coat. Don't make it easy. 5) Intervene with help and love when the challenge is too great. 6) Allow the person to make their own choices - really.I loved this story. And I understand why it means so much to my young friend, who struggles with anger. I recommend it for any person, regardless of their age, who struggles with aggression, self hatred, and hatred of others. I also recommend it to judges, teachers, social workers, religious leaders, shamanic practitioners, medical providers, law enforcement, probation officers, therapists - anyone working with people who struggle in this way.

Read this book once in middle school than read again as an adult too understand better and it was very worth I hope others have enjoyed this book as well