| Number | Call Number | Branch | Status | Volume |
| 1 |
YA F Mikaelsen Ben |
CP |
In at CP (Corporate Parkway) |
|
| 2 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
CP |
In at CP (Corporate Parkway) |
|
| 3 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
DR |
In at DR (Deer Run) |
|
| 4 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
DR |
In at DR (Deer Run) |
|
| 5 |
YA F Mikaelsen Ben |
DR |
In at DR (Deer Run) |
|
| 6 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
KL |
Out: Due May 11 2013 |
|
| 7 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
KL |
In at KL (Kathryn Linnemann) |
|
| 8 |
YA F Mikaelsen Ben |
KR |
In at KR (Kisker Road) |
|
| 9 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
KR |
In at KR (Kisker Road) |
|
| 10 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
MK |
Out: Due May 28 2013 |
|
| 11 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
MY |
In at MY (McClay) |
|
| 12 |
YA F Mikaelsen Ben |
MY |
Out: Due May 19 2013 |
|
| 13 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
NC |
Out: Due May 30 2013 |
|
| 14 |
J F Mikaelsen Ben |
SP |
In at SP (Spencer Road) |
|
| 15 |
YA F Mikaelsen Ben |
SP |
In at SP (Spencer Road) |
|
|
| Gr. 6-9. Cole Matthews is a 15-year-old, baby-faced con. The child of wealthy, abusive alcoholic parents, Cole has been getting into trouble most of his life. One day, he beats a fellow student so severely the boy suffers permanent physical damage. Mikaelsen's new novel is the story of Cole's redemption; it is also a look at an unusual justice system. Cole's parole officer arranges for Cole to face "Circle Justice," a Native American tradition. The Circle decides that Cole must spend a year, by himself, on a remote Alaskan island. Cole is at first resistant, but he eventually learns much about himself and his anger, and he even finds a way to help his victim. Some may argue that the change in Cole comes too quickly to be realistic, but even students with very different backgrounds will empathize with this tortured bully. As in Countdown (1997), Mikaelsen is at his best when using the story to explain other cultures. An excellent companion to Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (1987) and Allan Eckert's Incident at Hawk's Hill (1971). Marta Segal Copyright 2001 Booklist Reviews | | | |
| After brutally beating a schoolmate, Cole Matthews is sent to live by himself on a remote Alaskan island as part of a ""Circle Justice"" offender program. The self-pitying teenager takes part in Native American rituals (though he's white) and, in an unlikely scenario, aids in the recovery of the now-suicidal victim of his violence. The characters, dialogue, and message are all presented with a heavy hand. Copyright 2001 Horn Book Guide Reviews | | | |
| Troubled teen meets totemic catalyst in Mikaelsen's (Petey, 1998, etc.) earnest tribute to Native American spirituality. Fifteen-year-old Cole is cocky, embittered, and eaten up by anger at his abusive parents. After repeated skirmishes with the law, he finally faces jail time when he viciously beats a classmate. Cole's parole officer offers him an alternative—Circle Justice, an innovative justice program based on Native traditions. Sentenced to a year on an uninhabited Arctic island under the supervision of Edwin, a Tlingit elder, Cole provokes an attack from a titanic white "Spirit Bear" while attempting escape. Although permanently crippled by the near-death experience, he is somehow allowed yet another stint on the island. Through Edwin's patient tutoring, Cole gradually masters his rage, but realizes that he needs to help his former victims to complete his own healing. Mikaelsen paints a realistic portrait of an unlikable young punk, and if Cole's turnaround is dramatic, it is also convincingly painful and slow. Alas, the rest of the characters are cardboard caricatures: the brutal, drunk father, the compassionate, perceptive parole officer, and the stoic and cryptic Native mentor. Much of the plot stretches credulity, from Cole's survival to his repeated chances at rehabilitation to his victim being permitted to share his exile. Nonetheless, teens drawn by the brutality of Cole's adventures, and piqued by Mikaelsen's rather muscular mysticism, might absorb valuable lessons on anger management and personal responsibility. As melodramatic and well-meaning as the teens it targets. (Fiction. YA) Copyright Kirkus 2001 Kirkus/BPI Communications All right reserved. | | | |
| Gr 7 Up-Cole Matthews is a violent teen offender convicted of viciously beating a classmate, Peter, causing neurological and psychological problems. Cole elects to participate in Circle Justice, an alternative sentencing program based on traditional Native American practices that results in his being banished to a remote Alaskan Island where he is left to survive for a year. Cynical and street smart, he expects to fake his way through the preliminaries, escape by swimming off the island, and beat the system, again. But his encounter with the Spirit Bear of the title leaves him desperately wounded and gives him six months of hospitalization to reconsider his options. Mikaelsen's portrayal of this angry, manipulative, damaged teen is dead on. Cole's gradual transformation into a human kind of being happens in fits and starts. He realizes he must accept responsibility for what he has done, but his pride, pain, and conditioning continue to interfere. He learns that his anger may never be gone, but that he can learn to control it. The author concedes in a note that the culminating plot element, in which Peter joins Cole on the island so that both can learn to heal, is unlikely. But it sure works well as an adventure story with strong moral underpinnings. Gross details about Cole eating raw worms, a mouse, and worse will appeal to fans of the outdoor adventure/survival genre, while the truth of the Japanese proverb cited in the frontispiece, "Fall seven times, stand up eight" is fully and effectively realized.-Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. | | | |
| Mikaelsen tells a gory survival story that evolves into an inspiring and sophisticated coming-of-age journey via "Circle Justice." Cole Mathews blames everyone but himself for his criminal record and violent behavior, but when he agrees to isolation on a remote Alaskan island instead of jail time for his vicious attack on a fourteen-year-old boy, he confronts immovable natural forces and ancient Tlingit Indian wisdom. Cole is mauled by a Spirit Bear he tries to kill. His attitude and injuries abort his first wilderness sentence and focus his second. Physically weakened but mentally prepared, Cole, both criminal and victim, learns that his own healing will take place only when he can heal his spirit by helping Peter Driscal, the boy he attacked. Like Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (Simon & Schuster, 1987), which tells about survival through "tough hope," Mikaelsen's story portrays survival through tough love. Garvey, Cole's parole officer, and Edwin, a Tlingit elder who remains supportive and unrelenting, teach Cole how to build a meaningful life through their expectations, firmness, stories, dances, and personal examples. Their illustrations-bad-tasting ingredients that create a delicious cake, a stick that shows the relationship between anger and happiness, a cooking lesson that teaches the meaning of life-explain a kind of discipline that never deserts the criminal or forgets his crime. Cole's journey to self-realization and truth through hardship, confrontation, and ritual will fascinate young and old, promote fruitful discussion about the impossibility of happily-ever-after endings, and have everyone waiting for the sequel.-Lucy Schall. 4Q 4P M J S Copyright 2001 Voya Reviews | | |
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