Febuary porfolio

Spirit Bear
If you have ever seen a spirit bear it is life changing and you know it. I saw this proud silvery white creature in the face on death and it made me realize something. Without everything else I would have no purpose and I was part a circle. It made me feel terrible thinking about the awful mauling I went through but also reminded me of what I did to Peter but the attacks were different. I attacked Peter because he ratted me out on destroying the stupid little hardware store that I robbed and the bear mauled me because I tried to hurt it. All the bear was doing when it stared at me was because it was curious and it wanted to see if I was threatening its territory. There is something I still don’t understand. How can something that brings so much pain be so beautiful???


Spirit Bear
The freezing air stings your fresh wounds. There is nothing to stay warm with and you are almost dead. You can’t feel your right arm or hip. Mosquitoes come during the day and suck the life out of you as you suffer. This is what Cole Matthews has to go through in the book Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. In this book Cole has made some bad choices and he thinks going to circle justice will be easier than going to jail but he was so wrong.

Cole Matthews is a very troubled person. He has gotten into a lot of trouble like robberies and he has been in and out of juvy. His most recent robbery was on a hardware store and he got ratted on by Peter Driscle. Cole smashed his head in and now faces jail time. Cole thinks that everything is someone else’s fault. His dad beats him so Cole blames his life on his father. In a conversation Cole has with his father, his dad says "We have devoted our lives to Cole. We-" Cole's response is "All you care about is you. Look at the way you're dressed. Nobody here is-" Cole's dad got angry at this comment and said "That’s not true. You better control your mouth or I'll-" Cole saw his father was getting angry and taunted him “You’ll what beat me." This happened between Cole and his father had at a circle justice meeting. It proves that Cole’s dad beats him but also that he blames his father for never truly taking care of him. These are some of the ways that Cole is a messed up individual who needs help.

Cole does get help from circle justice and learns that people can change. Cole does some bad things in this book including assaulting Peter Driscal. His punishment is that he has to go to a remote island in Alaska where he has a near death experience with a giant spirit bear. This somehow changes his perspective on live and the way people feel around him. When he hears that Peter tries to commit suicide Cole gets him to come to the island where they forgive each other and they move on. “Peter knelt, crying, his whole body bent forward. Cole not knowing what else to do wrapped his arms around Peter's shoulders. For a long time Peter let himself be hugged, leaning back into Cole. And that was when it appeared. Not twenty feet away, it stood watching them: the Spirit Bear. "Look" Cole whispered letting go of Peter. Peter sniffled, starring down at the ground. "Look" Cole whispered louder, nudging him. “It’s the Spirit Bear. Peter raised his head and starred, his mouth wide opened in amazement." This is when they both see the spirit bear which has a great impact on Peter as well as Cole because he doubted the existence of it. That is how the people in Touching Spirit Bear change.

Cole was wrong about circle justice being easier than jail. If Cole had gone to jail instead of the island he would have stayed anrgy and kept blaming his father for his mistakes and the way he was. Circle justice taught Cole to forgive, which is harder that staying angry. Because Cole has learned to forgive and has learned lessons on the island that he couldn't have in jail, he will now be a better person.

Hidden
The attic is gloomy. Your book has been on the same page for hours. The cool air is wafting through the vents in the roof. The vents!!! That is your only connection to the outside world. This is the life of 12 year old Luke Garner. He is a third child in a famine stricken country where it is illegal to have three children. Can you imagine never being able to have a friend or see any other people besides the ones in your family? This lack of freedom is similar to the Chinese government.
This story is a lot like the Chinese government. If you think about it, China has such a huge population and they wanted it to go down so they made a population law that you couldn’t have more than one child. This government is called communism. It is when everyone is created equal and they have the same paycheck and the same house. In the book Among the Hidden the people are not equal but there is still a population law.
This story is like real life and it is realistic so it would be under the category of realistic fiction. This is a good book but I was not truly inspired to write an essay and I would have tried if I had a good idea. To conclude this book connects to real life and is good but I couldn’t get inspiration out of it.