Lee Tergesen Books

After violently attacking a classmate, fifteen-year-old Cole Matthews must choose between going to jail and participating in an alternative punishment based on the Native American Circle Justice. Cole chooses Circle Justice and is banished for a year on an Alaskan island. Alone on the island, Cole is mauled by a mysterious Spirit Bear who changes his life. With the guidance of his parole officer and a Native American man, Cole learns to control his anger, forgive others, and take responsibility for his actions.
Touching Spirit Bear is an excellent book for young adults. It may be especially relevant for children who may be able to relate to the violence in the main character's life. Throughout the novel, the main character undergoes a remarkable transformation and creates a new identity throughout the healing process of Circle Justice.

Cole has been a screw up ever since birth. He beats people up, he steals, and he does the worst in school he can do basically he does the one thing he knows how to do screw up. So there's no surprise when one day at school when he goes over the edge and beats up a geek called peter till there's blood everywhere. Cole has to pay for his crime and it's his choice of either jail or a Native American Justice Circle.
I went through Cole's journey of life right by his side. I learned that no one is alone on this earth and that sometimes people do bad things so they can get noticed some how. Touching Spirit Bear pulled me into the book and kept me waiting for the next word each time. I loved that Touching Spirit Bear showed so many emotions and life. I was almost in tears at the end not only because I didn't want it to stop but also because I was so involved in the grabbing plot. I learned one of the most important life lessons and that's that life is something we all need to treasure. This book is for anyone who loves a life touching story.

~Emma

The first time I read this novel was with my oldest son when he was in 5th grade. It appeared in the curriculum for a sophomore special education literacy workshop class that I was teaching years later. I knew the students would enjoy the premise of the book but ran into a problem when the school did not have enough copies for all the students. I checked with Amazon and found they had paperback copies available at a discounted price for multiple copies ordered. I was able to purchase enough copies to cover my classes at a reasonable price and get free delivery. The novel was well received by the students and generated much discussion about survival, justice, anger and society.

I want to start off by saying, this is a very good book. Anybody reading this book would enjoy it. It is about a boy named Cole Matthews, he is a very troubled boy. If anyone even looked at him wrong they would regret it. Not only did he fight for stupid reasons, he also stole from stores and people. If you read this book you will see Cole's life go through a dramatic change. After picking his last straw by bashing Peter Driscal's skull into a sidewalk. That was it, it was over, he would either face one year of jail or circle justice and what ever they decided to do with him. His sentence was to go away to an unoccupied Alaskan island for one year. He got off to a bad start by burning down his shelter and trying to make a getaway. But he failed to do so and soon got torn up by a bear. On the verge of dying will he make it or will he not. So go buy the book and find out.
Byron Elliott

This book offers a satisfying read for those looking for a story with some "tough love" teaching to it. Great for high school age students.

Warning: spoilers contained. Julianne Moore leads the cast as a grieving mother on a tour de force that draws her into her personal hell, driven by heart alone as everyone, and everything, around her discounts her inner conviction that something else has happened to her missing son. Her husband is of no help, even trying to convince her that they never had a son. But just as she seems to be headed straight for a straight jacket, pieces of the wallpaper start to peel away and eventually the top is taken off of the day-to-day conventional notion of reality, plunging it into something that is totally unknown territory. Not only is the movie an almost continuous metaphor of messages, it provides a revelatory experience for the viewer as the plot unfolds and while some characters are unknowing, others, in the roles of authority to whom we have been taught to trust, are found out to be playing a pantomime while knowing of a deeper line of subterfuge. Why are they doing this when it appears that they are selling us out? What force would have the ability to alter our perceived reality so thoroughly and completely? A moody movie of foreboding overtones with many shades of blue that, along with Ms. Moore's performance, makes for sumptuous viewing, a preview and a catalyst for a meta-level of consciousness, a wave of awakening that is coming to engulf us all in a time of disclosure that is unparalleled in human history. If you felt uncomfortable or if it went over your head, try watching it again. You are close to something.

The Forgotten features Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore), who has been in mourning because of the death of her 9-year-old son, Sam. She's been grieving for over a year, and like a prisoner counting the days incarcerated, she can recite the time since his death down to the millisecond.

The thing is, everyone is telling her she's delusional. Even though she swears he lived, and subsequently died in a plane crash, everyone, her shrink (Gary Sinise), and even her husband Jim are telling her the kid didn't exist. They even go so far as to remove all personal objects one day when she is gone, just so they can convince her she is insane. Telly, on the other hand, knows what she remembers, and enlists the help of Ash Correll (Dominic West), the father of a little girl who was killed on the same plane flight. Ash doesn't remember his daughter, but with some help from Telly, and the Detective on the case (Alfre Woodard), they are able to convince Ash.

I suppose this could have been taken two ways. One, we know beforehand that she had a kid, and the kid is missing, but everyone is trying to convince her otherwise. Or, two, the suspense and mystery is lengthened so that we are unsure if she is actually delusional or not. As it stands, we know she is telling the truth, and that all others are attemping to convince her otherwise for some strange reason.

Anyway, the suspense is top-notch, and the audience is kept guessing until the very end. It's god an eerie, old-school Alfred Hitchcock feel to it. What I mean by that is the story is told in such a way that there is genuine intrigue, and not the foreshadowing nonsense of most contemporary movies that allows the audience to figure things out about halfway through the viewing.

Be on the lookout for a specific special effects scene in which a reverse bungee jump type maneuver is accomplished. It's gasp-worthy, and a nice touch that allows the viewer to empathize a bit with the helplessness being experienced by Telly.

Okay. Let me try to make sense out of this ridiculous movie.

Premise: Julianne Moore plays a women who remembers having a son who supposedly dies in a plane crash while everyone seems to forget including her husband. She laters links up with a friend who forgets that he had a girl named Lauren who used to play with her son named Sam. He remembers later and what ensues is some test run by the government to erase the memories of those people whose kids died in that plane crash.

Opinion: This movie had potential but the plotholes, lousy script and the asinine twist kill whatever chance this movie had to be great. If they would have kept the movie simple it could have been okay. The story of the government running a test that erases memory seemed interesting enough until the movie threw supernaturalism into the mix. Julianne Moore is not bad in this movie but there is little she could do to save it. Alfre Woodard is a great actress but even she seems out of place in this suspense-turned-sci-fi flick. You want me to believe that a government agent can absorb bullets like T-1000 in Terminator 2? Talk about ripping pages out of X-Files! There are other moments when your intelligence is insulted like when Alfre Woodard's character gets sucked into thin air or when they hit an agent at a car rental place who manages to get up afterwards or their car getting hit by an SUV driven by those insufferable agents and they still manage to get away without a scratch. In short this movie is a mess that could have been avoided. If kept simple it could have worked but when they throw aliens into the mix, they turned what could have been a decent movie into a foolish parody of X-Files and the Twilight Zone. This movie is called The Forgotten and if you were smart enough you would forget that it even exists.

THIS MOVIE IS ALMOST UNWATCHABLE; UNLESS THE ACTORS ARE STANDING STILL! OUT OF
FOCUS AND MOTION BLURRING. I CAN SEE WHY THEY HAVE IT FOR ONLY 99 CENTS. BUY
THE DVD OR RENT IT FROM ITUNES.

I can't say much about this film as it is just a real dud. The plot is totally unbelievable although it has a clever premise. The acting is strictly by the numbers, the direction pedestrian at best, and the effect were just average. Maybe I'll rewrite this review when I'm in a better mood, but for now, this is film is one to forget renting or buying.

Warning: spoilers contained. Julianne Moore leads the cast as a grieving mother on a tour de force that draws her into her personal hell, driven by heart alone as everyone, and everything, around her discounts her inner conviction that something else has happened to her missing son. Her husband is of no help, even trying to convince her that they never had a son. But just as she seems to be headed straight for a straight jacket, pieces of the wallpaper start to peel away and eventually the top is taken off of the day-to-day conventional notion of reality, plunging it into something that is totally unknown territory. Not only is the movie an almost continuous metaphor of messages, it provides a revelatory experience for the viewer as the plot unfolds and while some characters are unknowing, others, in the roles of authority to whom we have been taught to trust, are found out to be playing a pantomime while knowing of a deeper line of subterfuge. Why are they doing this when it appears that they are selling us out? What force would have the ability to alter our perceived reality so thoroughly and completely? A moody movie of foreboding overtones with many shades of blue that, along with Ms. Moore's performance, makes for sumptuous viewing, a preview and a catalyst for a meta-level of consciousness, a wave of awakening that is coming to engulf us all in a time of disclosure that is unparalleled in human history. If you felt uncomfortable or if it went over your head, try watching it again. You are close to something.

The Forgotten features Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore), who has been in mourning because of the death of her 9-year-old son, Sam. She's been grieving for over a year, and like a prisoner counting the days incarcerated, she can recite the time since his death down to the millisecond.

The thing is, everyone is telling her she's delusional. Even though she swears he lived, and subsequently died in a plane crash, everyone, her shrink (Gary Sinise), and even her husband Jim are telling her the kid didn't exist. They even go so far as to remove all personal objects one day when she is gone, just so they can convince her she is insane. Telly, on the other hand, knows what she remembers, and enlists the help of Ash Correll (Dominic West), the father of a little girl who was killed on the same plane flight. Ash doesn't remember his daughter, but with some help from Telly, and the Detective on the case (Alfre Woodard), they are able to convince Ash.

I suppose this could have been taken two ways. One, we know beforehand that she had a kid, and the kid is missing, but everyone is trying to convince her otherwise. Or, two, the suspense and mystery is lengthened so that we are unsure if she is actually delusional or not. As it stands, we know she is telling the truth, and that all others are attemping to convince her otherwise for some strange reason.

Anyway, the suspense is top-notch, and the audience is kept guessing until the very end. It's god an eerie, old-school Alfred Hitchcock feel to it. What I mean by that is the story is told in such a way that there is genuine intrigue, and not the foreshadowing nonsense of most contemporary movies that allows the audience to figure things out about halfway through the viewing.

Be on the lookout for a specific special effects scene in which a reverse bungee jump type maneuver is accomplished. It's gasp-worthy, and a nice touch that allows the viewer to empathize a bit with the helplessness being experienced by Telly.

Okay. Let me try to make sense out of this ridiculous movie.

Premise: Julianne Moore plays a women who remembers having a son who supposedly dies in a plane crash while everyone seems to forget including her husband. She laters links up with a friend who forgets that he had a girl named Lauren who used to play with her son named Sam. He remembers later and what ensues is some test run by the government to erase the memories of those people whose kids died in that plane crash.

Opinion: This movie had potential but the plotholes, lousy script and the asinine twist kill whatever chance this movie had to be great. If they would have kept the movie simple it could have been okay. The story of the government running a test that erases memory seemed interesting enough until the movie threw supernaturalism into the mix. Julianne Moore is not bad in this movie but there is little she could do to save it. Alfre Woodard is a great actress but even she seems out of place in this suspense-turned-sci-fi flick. You want me to believe that a government agent can absorb bullets like T-1000 in Terminator 2? Talk about ripping pages out of X-Files! There are other moments when your intelligence is insulted like when Alfre Woodard's character gets sucked into thin air or when they hit an agent at a car rental place who manages to get up afterwards or their car getting hit by an SUV driven by those insufferable agents and they still manage to get away without a scratch. In short this movie is a mess that could have been avoided. If kept simple it could have worked but when they throw aliens into the mix, they turned what could have been a decent movie into a foolish parody of X-Files and the Twilight Zone. This movie is called The Forgotten and if you were smart enough you would forget that it even exists.

THIS MOVIE IS ALMOST UNWATCHABLE; UNLESS THE ACTORS ARE STANDING STILL! OUT OF
FOCUS AND MOTION BLURRING. I CAN SEE WHY THEY HAVE IT FOR ONLY 99 CENTS. BUY
THE DVD OR RENT IT FROM ITUNES.

I can't say much about this film as it is just a real dud. The plot is totally unbelievable although it has a clever premise. The acting is strictly by the numbers, the direction pedestrian at best, and the effect were just average. Maybe I'll rewrite this review when I'm in a better mood, but for now, this is film is one to forget renting or buying.