GHOST OF SPIRIT BEAR

Now for a Very Special Episode of Spirit Bear... Seventeen-year-old Cole has completed his year of exile on a remote Alaskan island, learning to control the violent anger that was leading him on the path to jail. But now he has to return to his Minneapolis high school and cope with bullying, gangs and the apathy of teens and adults alike. When tragedy galvanizes the student body to seek change, Cole becomes the unlikely leader of a movement to replace the school mascot, a snarling bulldog, with a Spirit Bear, the symbol of inner strength. Despite the creepy title, this slim follow-up to Touching Spirit Bear (2001) reads like a throwback to the archetypal YA “problem novel.” Mikaelson certainly means well, wisely avoiding simplistic solutions, and the hefty dollops of symbolism and mystical allusions, along with an unrealistically upbeat denouement, may offer comfort to some troubled youngsters; but the more sophisticated (or jaded) will be turned off by the heavy-handed earnestness. (Fiction. 11 & up)