Book Review: Touching Spirit Bear

'Whatever you do to the animals, you do to yourself. Remember that.'

Yes, it's another one of my YA books. The way Pai puts it, they're easier to read and understand, and they don't cause headaches, so I don't think I'll be kicking the habit of reading Young Adult anytime soon. I'm still not sure what drove me to buying this book. Possibly, I had just finished His Dark Materials at the time, and was still obsessing over how cool bears were, saw this book, and thought 'OOOOH! BEAR!'. Oh well.

The novel revolves around Cole Matthews, a fifteen year old boy who's been in trouble for a quite a long time. Stealing, fighting, etc. etc. Everything a juvenile delinquent should be. Though there wasn't any mention of rape... oh well, he's fifteen. Give him time.

The latest in Cole's impressive list of juvenile activities is smashing one Peter Driscal's skull into the sidewalk. For this, Cole will have to choose between prison and Native American Circle Justice~ which means choosing either a year behind bars or isolation for a year. Seeing the fact that the dumb people on the Circle Justice council believe that Cole has to be 'healed' spiritually, and the fact that Cole has no intention of spending a year where people get sexually deprived, he picks isolation.

And so he is sent to a remote Alaskan island where he will have no contact whatsoever with the outside world for a year. (The horror! His e-mail account will definitely expire over that much time!) That is, save for the occasional visits by Circle Justice members Garvey and Edwin who check in on him from time to time to drop supplies. Considering himself smarter than the idiots who put him on the island to begin with, Cole begins to plan his escape. Building a raft doesn't work, so he attempts swimming~ which turns out to be a dumb idea. Alaskan waters aren't exactly warm.

Furious that he can't escape, he takes it out on everything else. The shelter that Garvey and Edwin constructed for him, for one, and, well, a bear. Now if you're beginning to think that this bear is going to be the one that will guide him to Cole's spiritual recovery as well as redemption, has the ability to talk, thus spouting words of wisdom every few pages and singing jolly, motivational songs, well, you're only half right. No wait, way off.

The bear sends Cole down his road of redemption, alright. By mauling him. Now how does help, you wonder? Well I'm not spoiling that. The story is basically about what Cole learns over his period of isolation from nature and Inuit philospohy, and how he comes to terms with himself. And you get to see how Cole develops from a bitter person who is angry at the world to a...dying, bitter person who is angry at the world. Okay, I was just kidding.

Overall, this book is a good read. I re-read it a few times, which is more than I can say for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is now collecting dust on my shelf. And if I say it's worth re-reading, there, it's good.

Which makes me wonder if the juvenile delinquent centers in Malaysia should start working together with Zoo Negara, maybe toss in one juvenile per day into the bear cage and see what happens. It just might work. Though I don't think sending our juveniles to isolated islands can really work. Our waters aren't that cold, and hey, if Indons can swim to shore, I'm sure that fresh, young bodies with minds of serial rapists can do so too. But it does get me wondering about the prison system, though. Native American's 'heal' their guilty rather than punish. What good does punishment really do for anyone save for the fact that the victims get a minor sense of pleasure?

Oh well.

8 out of 10.