Touching Spirit Bear
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50 free Touching Spirit Bear trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Ben Mikaelsen's Touching Spirit Bear is one of the most widely taught novels in middle school, and it earns its place. Cole Matthews is fifteen, furious and facing prison for a brutal attack on a classmate when he is offered another way: a year alone on a remote island in Southeast Alaska. Within days he has picked a fight with a huge white bear and lost. This quiz follows the whole story, from the hearings that send Cole north to his second chance on the island and the arrival of Peter Driscal, the boy he hurt. There are questions on Edwin and Garvey's lessons, the rituals and symbols Cole lives by, the way the novel is told, and the author and the real animal that inspired him. It is written for students reading the book in class and for the teachers and parents reading along. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so it works as a chapter review, a study check before a test, or a printable quiz for a book club.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Touching Spirit Bear, which Native American form of sentencing spares Cole from adult prison?
Circle Justice
Circle Justice aims to heal the offender, the victim and the community together instead of simply punishing. Garvey warns Cole that banishment under it will be far harder than jail.
Q 02In Touching Spirit Bear, what does Cole do to Edwin's shelter once the boat leaves him alone?
Burns it down
He burns it down with gasoline and a match, supplies and all, in a rage at everyone who sent him there. Within hours he is shivering on the shore with no roof and no food.
Q 03The white animal in Touching Spirit Bear is a pale-coated variety of which kind of bear?
Black
Black is right: the spirit bear is a subspecies of the American black bear, and most of its kind are born with ordinary dark coats. Only a few hundred pale ones are thought to exist.
Q 04In Touching Spirit Bear, what must each speaker be holding at the hearings on Cole's case?
A feather
A feather passes from hand to hand, and only whoever holds it may speak. When it reaches Cole's mother she is too afraid to say anything and simply hands it on.
Q 05In Touching Spirit Bear, Garvey has Cole taste raw ingredients, then serves him what baked treat?
A cake
A cake made from the very flour, salt and eggs that tasted awful alone is the whole lesson. Garvey wants Cole to see that the bad parts of a life can still add up to something good.
Q 06In Touching Spirit Bear, where does Edwin make Cole soak at dawn to let go of his anger?
A freezing pond
A freezing pond is Edwin's own cure: he soaked there every day when he was banished to the same island as a young man. Cole admits the cold leaves him no room to feel angry.
Q 07In Touching Spirit Bear, what does Cole carve from a huge log, adding an animal for each lesson?
A totem pole
A totem pole becomes the record of Cole's year, with an eagle, a wolf and other animals carved in as he meets them. One space stays blank until he works out how to show forgiveness.
Q 08In Touching Spirit Bear, which small animal does the injured Cole catch with one hand and eat alive?
A mouse
A mouse that wanders within reach is chewed up, fur and bones included. Too broken to stand, Cole has already forced down grass, worms and beetles to stay alive.
Q 09In Touching Spirit Bear, how does Cole respond when Peter Driscal punches and kicks him?
Refuses to fight back
Cole refuses to fight back, taking every blow until Peter sinks to his knees in tears. As the two finally embrace, the bear appears to them both.
Q 10In Touching Spirit Bear, what does Cole boast he will do if he meets the bear Edwin describes?
Kill it
Kill it, Cole brags, and Edwin answers that whatever he does to the animals he does to himself. Soon afterwards Cole attacks the bear and is mauled almost to death.
Q 11In Touching Spirit Bear, which Midwestern city is Cole Matthews's home before his banishment?
Minneapolis
Minneapolis is where Cole grew up and where he attacked Peter. After the mauling he is flown back there and spends six months recovering before the island gets a second try.
Q 12In Touching Spirit Bear, what is Cole wearing on his wrists as the skiff carries him to the island?
Handcuffs
Handcuffs stay on Cole even while Edwin and Garvey unload his supplies at the island. He offers to help carry the boxes, and both men ignore him.
Q 13In Touching Spirit Bear, what weapon does Cole make from a branch to attack the bear?
A spear
A spear cut from a branch does nothing: the bear knocks it aside and mauls him. Lying broken afterwards, Cole realises this is the first creature that was never afraid of him.
Q 21In Touching Spirit Bear, how does the helpless Cole defy the bear when it returns after the mauling?
Spits at it
He spits at it, expecting to be killed for the insult. The bear only sniffs him and walks away, and at their next meeting Cole reaches up and touches its coat instead.
Q 22In Touching Spirit Bear, which proof of his bear encounter does Cole secretly throw away?
A tuft of hair
A tuft of hair pulled from the bear sat in his pocket all through the rescue. Edwin doubts such an animal lives so far north, and Cole decides his honesty must stand without evidence.
Q 23In Touching Spirit Bear, what work does Rosey do single-handed in the settlement near Cole's island?
Nurse
Q 14In Touching Spirit Bear, what natural force defeats Cole's attempt to swim away from the island?
The incoming tide
The incoming tide pushes Cole back to the beach however hard he swims, and a leg cramp nearly drowns him. He staggers ashore at dusk, and that is when he first sees the bear.
Q 15In Touching Spirit Bear, what did Peter Driscal do that made Cole attack him so savagely?
Reported his break-in
Peter reported his break-in at a hardware store after Cole bragged about it to classmates. Cole's revenge left Peter with injuries that doctors feared would be permanent.
Q 16In Touching Spirit Bear, the at.óow Garvey entrusts to Cole is what kind of heirloom?
A blanket
A blanket handed down through generations, the at.óow stands for trust, and whoever holds it must one day pass it to someone he trusts. Cole finally gives it to Peter.
Q 17In Touching Spirit Bear, what is Cole's father charged with once Cole's mother speaks up?
Child abuse
Child abuse charges follow once Garvey persuades her to tell the truth about years of beatings. His lawyer has him released the same day, so he never spends a night in jail.
Q 18In Touching Spirit Bear, which escape craft is Cole tempted to carve from the huge log he finds?
A canoe
A canoe would have let Cole flee, and merely imagining it brought his old anger back. He hacked a deep groove into the log so it could never be used that way.
Q 19In Touching Spirit Bear, which animal's dance shows Cole that he, too, migrates without a real home?
A whale
A whale breaching offshore prompts the first dance Edwin leads around the campfire. Each dancer must then say what the animal taught him, and Cole sees his own rootlessness.
Q 20In Touching Spirit Bear, Edwin is an elder of which Native people of Southeast Alaska?
Tlingit
Tlingit society is divided into Raven and Eagle halves, with clan membership passed down through the mother. Garvey shares that heritage, which is why he suggests his homeland for Cole.
Nurse Rosey keeps Cole alive through the night because no medical plane can reach them until morning. Asked why she bothers with him, she says helping others is the point of living.
Q 24In Touching Spirit Bear, which plain food does Garvey cut in three and toast over to celebrate life?
A hot dog
A hot dog is only food to Cole, who cooks one and wolfs it down. Garvey shares his in pieces with toasts and laughter to show that any meal becomes a celebration if you treat it as one.
Q 25In Touching Spirit Bear, what title is given to the woman who leads the hearings on Cole's sentence?
The Keeper
The Keeper is never given any other name in the novel. She has everyone join hands as a meeting opens and enforces the rule about who may speak.
Q 26In Touching Spirit Bear, the heavy rock Cole carries uphill each morning stands for whom?
His ancestors
His ancestors go up the slope with him, Edwin explains, along with every lesson they learned. At the top the stone changes meaning: Cole rolls it down as his anger and watches it go.
Q 27In Touching Spirit Bear, which parting gift does Garvey say can destroy Cole or help him heal?
A knife
A knife can wound, Garvey says, or it can carve and reveal what lies within its owner. Cole promises to make something special with it.
Q 28In Touching Spirit Bear, where does Cole sleep so that a frightened Peter can have the cabin?
A tent
A tent pitched outside is Cole's bed for weeks, and it leaks in the constant rain. Peter finally comes over during a downpour and says he may sleep indoors.
Q 29Touching Spirit Bear opens on the boat to the island; how are Cole's earlier crimes revealed?
Flashbacks
Flashbacks carry the hearings and the attack on Peter, cutting in while Cole swims, starves and lies injured. Starting a story mid-journey like this is known as in medias res.
Q 30In Touching Spirit Bear, how is Cole's second trip to the island paid for at Edwin's insistence?
Selling his belongings
Selling his belongings, from the dirt bike to the skis, covers the whole cost. Nothing else is handed to him either: this time Cole must build his own shelter while the men look on.