Touching Spirit Bear

Cole Matthews has done real harm — he beat a classmate badly enough to cause lasting damage — and Ben Mikaelsen doesn't let him off easy. Given the choice between prison and Circle Justice, Cole is sent alone to an Alaskan island, where a Spirit Bear mauls him and leaves him fighting to survive. The recovery is slow, physical, and genuinely transformative. When Cole eventually invites the boy he hurt to share the healing process, the book makes a credible case for restorative justice without sentimentalizing it. Parents should know the content is intense: graphic injuries, survival sequences involving eating live animals, child abuse by an alcoholic parent, and two suicide attempts. Indigenous scholars have also raised legitimate concerns about the book's use of Tlingit traditions. ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults; best for ages 12 and up.