In Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen takes place on present day in Minneapolis and Alaska and is about a boy names Cole who has anger issues . In this book Cole cant control his anger and beats up people whenever he gets mad . One day he went to a program called Circle Justice to help him and suggested he goes to an island by himself since he cant handle being around people at that moment . Cole eventually learned how to control his emotions and asked if he can invite a kid he beat up badly named Peter . Peter said he would go but was afraid of Cole and one day Cole and Peter went to a freezing lake and as they were walking back Peter basically tries to fight Cole but Cole didnt make any movement to show Peter hes changed . As they get back to the cabin they both become friends .  The theme of the story is to never let anger get the best of you because it can take over and ruin your days just like it did for Cole