Touching Spirit Bear

Benjamin and I have been participating, to some degree, in his school's family book club. This time around, we read Ben Michaelson's book Touching Spirit Bear which is about a troubled teenager, Cole Mathews, who after throttling and permanently impairing a fellow student, Peter Driscal, is sentenced to live in isolation on an Alaskan island. Cole is left to fend for himself on the island and to come to grips with his anger, resentment and learning to forgive himself. It's a tough time to begin with, especially since his greatest enemy is himself. It isn't until he lets go of fighting against society and everyone around him that he begins to grasp at hope. It's a lesson all of us have to learn at one time or another. Fortunately, we don't normally have to go through such trying times as Cole in order to learn to it.

It was a lot of fun to read a book together as a family and to be able to discuss the book. We are all avid readers and will get caught up in a book and let the world go by. A great escape.

At the book club meeting, Benjamin was given a free book for having a birthday this month. It was actually this past Wednesday, January 28th. Martha stayed up late Thursday night reading the book—Book One of The Mistmantle Chronicles, Urchin of the Riding Stars by M.I. McCallister—in one fell swoop. She's a very fast reader but also missed out on some sleep that night. Benjamin and I look forward to reading the book ourselves. It's fun to share books in the family. At this point, a book will often pass through Martha, myself, Benjamin and now Joshua before returning to the library.