“This is going to be another one of those books, isn’t it?”

And I’m happy to say that Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen wasn’t. Rather, it was a book of adventure and looking deeper into issues that are often overlooked.

Cole is a teenage juvenile delinquent from Minneapolis who is in trouble with the law one again. Nothing ever seems to go right and it just seems that this cycle will keep on repeating. But this time, something is different in his punishment. Maybe rather than punishing, it’s time to correct what’s been done. And we’re taken though Cole’s journey to heal from his life’s scar.

What makes this book so special is seeing characters really grow before your eyes. And that’s what I love- rather than just a sudden growth in personality, there’s a gradual growth and process of how one changes. And it doesn’t take going into specific details to get the point across.

And as suggested in the title, there’s something spiritual that comes with this novel (which there is). Usually, I don’t look favorably to books of such topics. It gets controversial and I feel that when a novel tries to get spiritual, the plot just runs off track and someone is preaching to you. But “Touching Spirit Bear” manages not to screw that up. And here’s to mention, they don’t touch on spirituality lightly, as if that’s the reason I like it. Actually, it gets quite deep in spirituality. But you can tell, “here’s something that’s different,” something you can read or hear and really take as valuable advice, no matter what you believe in.

I also really loved this book because it implements my favorite topics: wilderness and survival. Here we have a story of change, survival, growth, and spirit. It will leave you satisfied.

          Touching Spirit Bear has a book level of 5.3 and is worth 9.0 points.