Touching Spirit Bear Analysis

Touching Spirit Bear introduces readers to the setting right away—a remote island off the coast of Alaska where Cole Matthews must spend a year while trying to reform himself and repent for his c...

Because the story centers so much on Cole's internal transformation, it's useful to have a third person point of view with a direct view into how Cole is feeling and what he's thinking. And because...

Young Adult Literature Touching Spirit Bear is definitely a book that's aimed toward adolescent audiences because it features a protagonist who's just a teenager himself—even if he does find hims...

Because Touching Spirit Bear focuses on Cole's experience, a lot of it is told through his rather less-than-rosy perspective. Especially at the beginning, Cole thinks the world is just a terrible p...

Touching Spirit Bear sticks like glue to Cole's perspective, which means that the writing follows his thoughts and movements. The writing style is perfectly easy to follow, but since Cole's an emot...

Touching Spirit Bear has both a literal and a figurative meaning for the novel's protagonist, Cole Matthews. Cole does actually touch Spirit Bear when he comes to the island—you know, when he tri...

Fall seven times, stand up eight. - Japanese Proverb The epigraph for Touching Spirit Bear is all about perseverance and strength of character, about digging deep to find the ability to carry on ev...

Touching Spirit Bear ends with a scene where Cole and Peter have finally come together despite their past differences and have worked together to carve on Cole's totem to represent his anger: When...

Touching Spirit Bear is a pretty simple book to follow in terms of writing style and vocabulary, but it does deal with some very heavy issues. So while it should be a novel that most readers can ge...

Going to the IslandThe beginning of the book sets up the story by introducing us to Cole Matthews, a teenage delinquent who is in big trouble for beating up another boy at his school, Peter Driscal...

Apparently, author Ben Mikaelsen has had a lot of experience with furry friends in his lifetime. He had a bear named Buffy…who was best friends with a dog named Baca. (Source) Another funny Buf...

There's a lot of gross stuff in Touching Spirit Bear (like when Cole eats a live mouse, fur and all), but not a whole lot of sexy intrigue. Because he's on a journey of self-discovery that involves...