Camron Anderman

Dear Ben Mikaelsen,

Touching Spirit Bear is a book about people giving another person another shot to redeem himself and be let back out into the real world. He doesn't realize people are trying to help him and he's only hurting himself, until he comes across a near death experience with a white bear, which is called a spirit bear around these islands. He tries to kill the bear because it's not afraid of him but he ends up getting mauled by the bear. He sits their injured and about dead and thinks no one cares about him. He thinks his father beats him because he's a failure.

He finally realizes he can change and do something with his life. He started to change by controlling his anger. By taking a soak in the ice-cold pond and rolling the ancestor rock down the hill to watch his angry roll away. He dances to learn and feel different things. He also carves symbols on a totem pole about the dances he did. He feels bad for Peter and he feels like the only way to help Peter and help himself is to have Peter go to the island like he did. He thinks it will help heal Peter like it did him.

He tries to help Peter and tries to teach him everything he's learned, but Peter don't want to do anything with Cole because of him beating up Peter. Peter finally gives in and does everything to help him heal himself. He even starts his own totem pole. Cole and Peter see the spirit bear and Peter is surprised because no one really believed Cole about getting mauled by a spirit bear. They both worked hard to contain their anger by soaking in the pond and rolling the ancestor rock down the hill. They both changed their life on that island.

I've made a lot of bad choices in my life. People think right away that I'm a bad person because I've made some,bad choices in my life. Just because I've made some choices in my life doesn't mean I'm a bad person.  I think I can change like Cole and I don't need a near death experience to do it either. Thank you.

Sincerely yours,
Camron Anderman