Biography of the author

Biography of the author:

Ben Mikaelsen was born in La Paz (Bolivia) in 1952. He went to an English school in Bolivia until he moved to America. He started fulltime writing in 1984, he is really famous and won a lot of awards like the Western Writers Golden Spur Award. He is married but he hasn’t got children. He owned a black bear for 26 years (The bear is dead, it died in 2010). Nowadays, Ben Mikaelsen lives in Montana.

What's a spirit bear?

What’s a spirit bear?:

The Spirit Bear is also known as the Ghost Bear and the Kermode Bear. They do look like a polar bear but they aren’t. A spirit bear is originally a black bear. The spirit bear is a very rare animal which lives at the north coast of Canada. People think that a spirit bear has the power to teach people how to do good thing/ do the right things.

My opinion

My opinion about the book:

I like the book because it did not took me long to read it. At some moment the use of words was advanced, but at some moments it wasn’t. The story didn’t get boring because of the fact that they changed a lot from subject. Sometimes this was also annoying because I first had to think back and then I knew where they were talking about. The story was also original I have never read a book like this before. Because it is not really a appealing title.

Vocabulary list:
 
Cower (p.7) > To move back or into a low position because of fear.

Juvenile (p.8) > For or involving young people who are not yet adults.

Delinquent (p.8) > behaving badly and often breaking the law.

Squirm (p.9) > Wriggle or twist the body from side to side, especially as a result of nervousness or discomfort

Deposition (p.9)  > A formal statement, taken from somebody and used in a court. 

Dignity (p.18) > the state or quality of being worthy of honour or respect.

Inferno (p.25) > A place of fiery heat or destruction.

Parole (p.26) > The temporary or permanent release of a prisoner before the expiry of a sentence, on the promise of good behaviour.

Billowy (p.44) > A large undulating mass of something, typically cloud, smoke, or steam.

Canopy (p.52) >  The uppermost branches of the trees in a forest, forming a more or less continuous layer of foliage

To gnaw (p.53) > to bite, chew on, or erode with the teeth

Mucus(p.68) > A slimy substance, typically not miscible with water, secreted by the mucous membranes and glands of animals for lubrication, protection, etc..

Haphazard (p.75) >  Lacking any obvious principle of organization

Inevitable (p.130) > That cannot be avoided or prevented from happening

Frenzy (p.131) > A state or period of uncontrolled excitement or wild behaviour.

Deliberately (p.141) > In a careful and unhurried way

fatigue (p.141) > The feeling of being extremely tired

redemption (p.157) > the action of being saved from evil.

Grub (p.170) > The first form that an animal takes when it comes out of his egg.

Treacherous (p.198) > that you cannot trust and who may do sth to harm you

Summary

Summary:

Chapter 1:
Cole Matthews is a 15 years old boy. He has got some anger issues. He has beaten his classmate Peter very badly. Cole had the choice to go to jail or to spend a year in southeast Alaska. He chose the last option. The Circle Justice is a sort of organisation which teaches people how to forgive, love and heal.

Chapter 2:
Cole has to live in an shelter which is made for him. He has to make his own food. 2 men had told him about the spirit bear that lives in this area. Cole hates this place and is already planning to escape from the island. He sets his shelter on fire.

Chapter 3:
While Cole was looking into the flames, he got a sort of flashback. The flashback was about how his life actually is and how it had changed after the divorce of his parents. Their had changed a lot, normally Cole was helped by his parents after he had done something and they could always save him from going to jail or getting punished. After the divorce his parents did not. He actually feels a bit lonely. Cole wants to escape from the island and he also has the ability to do it, he is a good swimmer and could swim to the next island.

Chapter 4:
Cole was a mile away from the next island. His mind wandered of and he was thinking about the preparations meetings which were called the 'Healing Circle'. At that moment, Cole did not know what to expect. He saw Peter for the first time after beating him up. He told the Keepers (the organizers of the Circles) that he felt very sorry, they believed him. He also said 'I  want this Circle to help me get over my anger'. After Peter had spoken,  Cole noticed that he had never spoken like that before.

Chapter 5:
Cole realized that he has to go back to the island. He is really weak because of the cold and he couldn’t move properly. When he felt asleep when he had arrived on the island. When he wakes up, he sees a vague white bear. This bear is called the spirit bear. Cole searched for his knife but as soon as he turned back, the bear was gone.

Chapter 6:
Cole had a flashback about the ‘Healing Circle’. He was in a intensive argument with his father. He told that his father beats him up when he is drunk. In this chapter is also clear that it was Garvey his idea to send Cole to this island.

Chapter 7:
Cole sees the spirit bear again, this time he tried to make a spear so he could kill the bear. When he was finished with making it, the bear had already disappeared. He wants to kill the spirit bear the next time he sees it. After a while, Cole sees the bear again. He takes his spear and knife and wants to kill it. He didn’t allow himself to go back. He’s almost twenty feet away from the bear.


Chapter 8:
Cole was 10 feet away from the bear. He threw his spear to the bear, but seconds later the bear was on him. He immediately fell the ground, the bear was very strong. The bear won and Cole was badly injured. He could only move his head and left arm. He is almost freezing to death and he is also thinking that he is going to die.

Chapter 9:
Cole is laying under a tree. He feels helpless. There is a heavy storm going on with a lot of thunder and rain. He sees birds in a nest who were getting fed by their mother. He also sees the spirit bear for a moment but after the second light, the bear disappeared. The storm is so heavy that a tree falls down. The birds were dead, this let Cole think about life.

Chapter 10:
Cole is still laying down under the tree. He thinks about life, death and the circle of life. Cole wants to be alive. Cole has to have enough energy otherwise, he would die. In order to survive, he had to eat grass and insects.

Chapter 11:
Cole hasn’t got enough so he wants to kill a mouse. He couldn’t think of a other way for killing and he also wasn’t able to do it on another way so he kills the mouse by just biting on it. He also sees the spirit bear, it is just twenty feet away from him and he is really frightened that the bear is going to kill him.

Chapter 12:
Luckily the bear didn’t kill him. Cole still realizes that he is going to die. Cole falls asleep. When he wakes up, he sees Garvey and Edwin who are trying to bring him to the hospital. Cole says that he is okay but he isn’t.

Chapter 13:
Cole is in the hospital and doctor Rosey is taking care of him. Cole is having a nightmare while he is sleeping. He is carried to a van and there he tells everything about the island. He tells Garvey everything what happened but they didn’t believe the things he said about the spirit bear. From now on, he wants to change his life.

Chapter 14:
Cole is recovered and leaves the hospital. Cole has to stay in an detention centre for a while. There are some meetings which are going to decide what is going to happen with him.

Chapter 15:
Nobody believes Cole anymore, so it is quite logical that he has to go to prison. Somehow, Garvey and Edwin found a way that he could go back to the island.

Chapter 16:
Cole went back to the island together with Garvey and Edwin who will stay a few days with him. He has to start again, also with building his own shelter. They ate a hotdog for a sort of celebration for being alive.




Chapter 17:
Cole is thinking a lot, especially about his past and future. He goes together with Edwin to an ice-cold stream. Edwin knows that Cole his anger is still a big issue. He tells him something about the two sides of a stick, you can compare this with anger.

Chapter 18:
Cole has made a new shelter and is taught how to dance the whale dance. From now he is  focussing on being alive but also on moments of joy.

Chapter 19:
Cole wasn’t doing well again, his attitude was bad and he almost had to leave the island. Garvey and Erwin told him this has to change. He goes for the first time to the pond (on his own). There he took a swim. He felt calm again and was able to stay on the island.

Chapter 20:
Cole thought that he saw the spirit bear. So he, Garvey and Edwin danced the spirit bear dance. The next day, Garvey and Edwin left when he was finished with making his shelter. From now on, he was alone.

Chapter 21:
Cole is doing a great job, he can control himself. He made a totem pole out of the wooden log he found on the shore.

Chapter 22:
Cole is still busy carving figures into the totem pole. He already has an eagle carved in it but he also wants a wolf and beaver in the totem pole. Cole is still thinking about the spirit bear and he can’t figure out why it had not showed up again. Cole thinks he could see the bear by dancing the anger dance, but he wasn’t ready to do that. Edwin visited Cole again, Cole asked about the spirit bear, Edwin thinks that Cole has to become invisible, but they don’t know how.

Chapter 23:
Cole knew how to become invisible: he had to clear his mind. He saw the bear and did the dance of anger. He felt sorry for everything that he had done wrong.

Chapter 24:
It was winter and freezing so Cole couldn’t go to the pond. He thinks a lot about Peter. Edwin told that Peter wanted to commit suicide twice. Cole knows how he could help him and he has also got the ability to help him. But does Peter want the help of Cole?

Chapter 25:
Peter does come to the island, together with his parents, Garvey and Edwin. Cole had told them about the island and where he has gone through, but Peter doesn’t listen at all. In order to heal he has to help Peter, but Peter doesn’t want his help.

Chapter 26:
The parents of Peter and Edwin leave, so only Cole, Peter and Garvey are left. Peter is really frightened and he doesn’t talk with Cole and he only listens to Garvey. But after two weeks he is processing a bit, he wants to have contact with Cole and they sleep in the shelter (first Peter slept in the shelter and Cole in a tent outside).

Chapter 27:
Peters asks Cole if he could see the spirit bear because he doesn’t think that he is really attacked by it. Peter wants to give Cole a ‘payback’ by destroying the bear in his totem pole, and he did.




Chapter 28:
Peter and Garvey went to the pond. Peter is still very mad at him and starts beating him up. Cole doesn’t do anything back because he has learned that on the island. He tries to calm Peter down. Suddenly Peter falls down on the ground and he starts crying. Then they saw the spirit bear, Peter couldn’t believe that it was true. They forgave each other and carved a circle on the totem pole. Cole gave the ot.oow which he got from Edwin to Peter as a sign of trust. They were both ready for a new beginning in their life.