Who is Ben Mikaelsen ? Ben is a great writer. He was born in 1952. Ben grew up in Bolivia, But now he lives in Montana. He moved to the U.S in the 7th grade. He didn't go to school until 4th grade. He owns a 750 pound Black Bear, his name is Buffy. He has been writing since 1984.

Ben Mikaelsen was born(1952) and raised in South America; in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia. For Ben Spanish was his strongest language, he had terrible problems with English(spelling and grammar). When he was a child, Ben was bullied. He used to be held down by bullies and have mud smeared on his face and be called racist names. Ben didn't start school until 4th grade and he moved to the U.S. in 7th grade. Ben when he moved to Montana, he adopted a black-bear cub named Buffy, Buffy is now 700 pounds and is over twenty years old.

Ben Mikaelsen was born in 1952 in Bolivia . He didn't want to go to school until he entered the 4th grade. Then after he finished elementary he went to middle school, and when he got to 7th grade he moved to the United State and started school over there. Right after he wrote his book "Touching Spirit Bear" he bought a black bear that weights about 750 pounds the bear is named Buffy. He started writing books in 1984 and now he lives in Montana. He won a lot of awards from writing books (it took him 6 years and 127 rejections from a book called rescue Josh McGuire before the book was publish). He had Buffy for 18 years. It took him about 2 months of research and 4 months to write a draft and maybe 6 months to finish his book.

The Touching spirit bear book is about a kid name Cole Matthews who is a kid that gets in trouble a lot. One day he beat up a kid name Peter Driscal. He got beat up for telling on someone after when Cole stole something from the store then he was sent to jail. After he was put to jail a guy name Garvey always came to see Cole to see how he's doing but Cole didn't care if he came to visit him then Garvey was telling him about the Justice circle where people get in a circle and hold a feather where they talk about there life's and what bad things happen to them and it was so post to help Cole feel better and maybe change but all the other people wanted him to go back to jail because they think that Cole mite do more bad stuffs. Then he was sent to and Island where he said that he saw a spirit bear that was looking at him but Cole would get mad at the bear for looking at him because he didn't like anyone starring at him. The book was publish in 2001 by Ben Mikaelsen at New York.

A spirit bear is a black bear Subspecies that is not Albino . These bears could live up to 25 years and they are illegal to hunt. Some people said that they have seen a spirit bear before. These bears are unique creatures and the name for the spirit bear is Kermode. 1 in 10 bears are white or sometimes cream color. The spirit bear is the National animal for British Colombia. These bears could run up to 55 miles per hour.
Ben Mikaelsen is the author of touching spirit bear. Ben was born in Bolivia in 1952,he started school in 4th grade. He moved to the U.S in 7th grade. He is currently living in Montana with his 750 pound black bear named Buffy. Ben has been writing since 1984. :D By sdibiase

Who is Ben Mikaelsen?
Ben Mikaelsen is the writer of the book Touching Spirit Bear. He was born in Bolivia in 1952.
He didn't go to school until the 4th grade. He moved to the U.S. during the 7th grade, and he's
been writing since 1984. He currently lives in Montana, and also owns a 750 pound black bear
named Buffy.

About Touching Spirit Bear.
The book is about a troubled 15 year old named Cole Matthews. After Cole beats the crap out of
a student from his school named Peter Driscal, and giving him brain damage. Cole is forced to
face justice and ends up being banished to an island in Alaska for a year. The book was written by
Ben Mikaelson, and published in New york in 2001.

What is a Spirit Bear?
A spirit bear is a Black Bear subspecies that is not Albino. Spirit bears are actually named Kermode.
They are illegal to hunt and can live up to 25 years in the wild. British Colombia has announced that
Spirit Bears are their national
animal. Spirit animal.Spirit bears can run up to 55km per hour. 1 in 10 bears are
cream colored.



Ben Mikaelson was beat up as a kid, which is one of the reasons that he wrote about Peter. Circle Justice is a real Native American form of justice that is mostly practiced in Minnesota and other mid-western states. Almost 5 million Alcoholic-abusing parents have at least one kid living with them, they are most likely to smoke and do other drugs. -Bri


What is Circle Justice?
Circle Justice is a traditional American Indian (in this case,the Tlingit) form of sentencing people who break the law by promoting healing,instead of the usual goal
of American justice,which is punishment.It's mostly practiced in Minnesota,and its ultimate goal is to help the offenders heal and lead better lives through personal reflection and circle gatherings,rather than to punish them through fines,prison terms,executions,etc.-Jim

Why does Ben Mikaelsen spend so much alone time with his bear Buffy?

Ben Mikaelsen, spends a lot of alone time with his black bear Buffy because he claims that she gives him inspiration to write. When he was a kid, his parents did encourage him to write, but one of Ben's teachers did, and Buffy adds to that. In my opinion, of what i have read about, they're very close. I think that them being so close makes him a better writer, because some people can be inspired by someone that is close to them. And lastly, when Buffy is hibernating in his cave, Ben sits in there with her, and writes.



Ben Mikaelsen was born on November 24, 1952 in La Paz, Bolivia. He spent the early years of his childhood growing up in Bolivia among the Andes Mountains, with his parents and who were Danish settlers. He mostly remembers his childhood from the viewpoint of an outcast. In Bolivia, he was considered a minority and was often bullied because of it. Later on, his parents sent him to a strict English boarding school where they were required to wear uniforms and were threatened with a ruler if they chose to misbehave. Eventually, he moved to the United States in seventh grade where he stayed for the rest of his childhood.

Ben Mikaelsen spent most of his childhood living in Bolivia where he has claimed he was often bullied by children for being white. Many of the insults he was given were probably reflected off of Cole , a troubled teen. While Ben was writing he probably put some of the feelings he felt while he was bullied into Cole showing the pain he felt during this time.

Ben Mikaelsen started school in the fourth grade and started writing when he was ten years old. When he was a child in South America, he had poor English grammar and spelling. Ben had to deal with racism before he got transferred to a strict white boarding school. Despite this, he still moved on to be an award-winning author that wrote great books like Touching Spirit Bear.

Ben Mikaelsen adopted what is now a 750 pound black bear Buffy as a cub shortly after moving to montana. i couldnt really find anything else about this subject.