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This was his first book.  It takes place in a border town not far from Mexico in Arizona.  Ricky Diaz whose mother died a few years earlier in a car accident overhears some federal agents who want his father to come back onto active duty for the DEA to break up a drug smuggling ring.  With his ability to speak and look Spanish, he is their only hope, but he refuses.  He’s retired after his wife’s death to take care of his son.  But it turns out his mother’s car accident was really a hit.  When Ricky hears this, he is totally mad at his dad for refusing to help and put the men who killed his mother behind bars.  Not only that, they’ve stolen a sensitive piece of equipment, a radar, that helps them avoid detection as they cross back and forth across the border poisoning American children with their drugs.  I remember stories about crop dusters who supposedly did drug runs from Oklahoma for a little extra cash, so even though this may sound far-fetched, it only confirms the stories I heard when I first started teaching.

Ricky who’s not legally old enough to learn how to fly is an expert pilot.  He learned from the best stunt pilot and DEA pursuit pilot around, his father.  So, Ricky decides to take things into his own hands.  He skips school for the first time in his life, takes whatever pesos they have around the house, and with U.S. currency buys himself a one-way bus ticket to Mariposa, Mexico, the home of the drug-lords.  On his trip, his shoes and money are stolen, and he’s beaten up by street hooligans, but gets help from an abused girl named Soledad.  In the end, he does get access to the plane with the U.S. radar equipment and flies that baby out of there.  He only makes it with bullets piercing his Seahawk plane by the help of his father and the United States military help.

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His second book.  It gives a totally different perspective of living in Florida on the keys than what was experienced in Red Midnight and the boat children’s arrival from Guatemala.  Koby is a loner, which seems to be the case for most of Mikaelsen’s protagonists.  Koby was hit by a car a few years back and the doctors had to amputate one of her legs just below the knee.  Now she wears a prosthetic and pants everyday so no one can see it.  She spent a lot of time in the hospital and physical therapy, so every kid at school knows her story, but she refuses to rejoin her social circles after the accident.  Now her life is spent on the open water of the Florida Keys.  On her daily adventures, she rescues a pilot whale from fish netting that some fisherman has not taken care of responsibly.  In doing so, she discovers that this pilot whale, a member of the dolphin family, has just delivered a calf.  The gauge in the mother’s fin is deep and she is weak, Koby doesn’t know if she’s strong enough to stay afloat, so she coaxes them to an inlet where they will be better protected and have a chance to regain their health.  Unfortunately, upon her return a few days later to check on them, Koby discovers they’ve are hung up on a sandbar, and another whale is beached and dead.  She spends the whole night there keeping the seagulls from finishing off the mother and son pilot whales and keeping the mother upright so she can get water into her blowhole.  Of course, this is to the chagrin of her parents, who have recently separated.  When she doesn’t think she can hold on much longer, a Coast Guard cutter spots her and her amazing rescue.  By this time, it’s nearly dawn, and her parents are less than thrilled but thankful that she’s alive.  It takes time for the pilot whales to recover, and it appears Koby is the only one they trust, so she becomes an integral part of the team to rehabilitate them.  Her heroic deed does not go unnoticed by her classmates and in the end Koby discovers that the only thing holding her back from rejoining the human race and school was herself.

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One of his earlier works, but you would’ve thought it was written yesterday considering that today NASA is looking for a young person to go into space for cybersecurity purposes. It takes sheer determination, commitment and follow through for Elliot to even think that an average ranch kid from Montana, who wants to become a pilot, could ever be the first junior astronaut in space, but he wins the contest, passes the physical tests, and preparation program. His attitude however has a lot to be desired and only displays his personal insecurities.  It nearly costs him his spot on the shuttle.  He’s rude to Maddie, the first runner up until somewhere along the way he realizes he could learn something from her and teach her a few things too. Lucky for him, he admits to his failings, just in time to keep his number one position on the space flight.  Although he has experienced a rude awakening about himself, he still has a lot to learn.  His job in space is to communicate with people around the world as he travels around the globe everyday throughout his time in space.  He encounters a Massai herder boy, Vincent Ole Tome, who comes from a totally different culture, who makes fun of Elliott for his cultural views.  Little does Elliott realize just how different this boy’s daily life is from his own, but he does recognize how similar their childhood experiences are in relationship to their fathers, the land and cattle.  It isn’t until they actually meet that all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place and a peaceful understanding unfolds for both boys.  This story does not only support the hopes and dreams of all young astronauts, it also drives at world peace, communication and understanding.

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As you know Ben Mikaelsen will be coming to visit RMS this coming school year.  All of his books hit home, touch your soul, and touch upon all the possible trials of being a kid.  In 1999 he wrote a booked entitled Petey.  Petey is a person with cerebral palsy, but he was born in 1920 when we didn’t even have penicillin yet, so as you can imagine how little people understood about any debilitating condition.  They certainly hadn’t even come up with a name for this condition.  The medical profession hadn’t even identified it, or had a name for it.  People just assumed that people with cerebral palsy were just shells of people.  It would be amazing if our current research in DNA could come up with a remedy for this debilitating condition.  It is hard to believe that until the 1970s people would just commit children who were born with any deformities both physical or mental to state mental institutions.  That’s probably why your grandparents never knew anyone who wasn’t what we consider normal when they grew up.   It wasn’t until the mid 70s when laws were passed to provide a public education for special needs children.  Before that families had to pay the total expense to get any education for their children, and there were no laws that required them to do so.  It is unfortunate that poor Petey Corbin that he spent years in a mental ward where the doctors truly believed that he didn’t have a mind at all that could process knowledge.  He was stuck in a body that didn’t work, but his mind was fully away.  The only thing that held him back was his body and the four walls that imprisoned him.   Back then they didn’t even know that physical therapy would’ve made the world of difference to Petey.  Instead his arms and legs closed in on his body uncomforably.  Somewhere along the line attendants realize that there is more to this boy and later man than a lump of a body and that’s where things get interesting.  It took a 14 year old to open up the world to the poor old man.  I wonder who learned more Petey or Trevor.  Read this great book and find out for yourself.  You won’t be able to put the book down.  It’s a great quick read.  Enjoy!

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Josh's older brother Tye died in a car accident while his father was away, and his father blames himself, because he wouldn't take him hunting on a men's retreat. His father turns to drinking and their idealistic home life turns into an abusive nightmare.  When his father kills a mother bear with a cub and lies about it, leaving the cub to die in the wilderness, Josh goes back to save it, only to have his father call to turn the cub over to the Fish, Game and Wildlife Department, which sends orphaned cubs for laboratory testing, which ultimately causes their deaths.  Josh refuses to turn the cub over and runs away with Pokey, but his dog Mud Flap tags along and nearly gets killed by a much larger bear. Pokey gets struck by a fallen tree and Josh has a terrible dirt bike accident which sends him to the hospital as soon as the Search and Rescue team find him.

It's a book about animal rights, the human heart and survival. The reader is drawn in and is kept in engaged all the way to the end. A great read!

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A wonderful coming of age book and sequel about a troublesome youth Cole Matthews.  He comes from a dysfunctional family; his parents are alcoholics.  One parent beat him while the other one chose to ignore the abuse.  In turn, Cole takes out his frustration on other kids at school.  He was the ultimate bully.  Eventually he hurt one boy Peter so badly that he sustained permanent damage.  Lucky for him, his parole officer Garvey, finds a way for Cole to turn his life around and avoid jail time; the program is called Circle Justice.  He is sent to a deserted island in Alaska.  He is thankful to stay out of jail, but he is resentful that he has to spend a year there alone. He was so ungrateful that he burnt down the shelter with all the provisions in it and ends up getting mauled to one inch of his life. After his recovery the only way he was able to return to the island to abide his time in lieu of jail was to help the boy he so severely injured.  Eventually he discovers the answers to his problems and returns to a nonviolent existence which leads to the greatest awakening of a lifetime.

Ghost of Spirit Bear is a sequel to Touching Spirit Bear by Mikaelsen but written seven years later in 2008.  The book opens with Cole’s return to civilization, school, and home.  His parents are now separated, charges against his father are pending, and divorce is imminent.   Going back to school only puts Cole back in the same destructive environment from which he left, except now instead of being the bully he is the victim, along with Peter, the boy he hurt and then helped.  It is apparent upon his return that his school is infested with gangs, low expectations, and inadequate supervision.  It’s essentially out of control. Cole brings his life around full circle, using his experiences and strength to lead his classmates in making a difference in their community and school starting by changing the school’s mascot.  The whole process teaches everyone involved to standup for what’s right and not just standby and watch what happened.  No longer do students think that so long as it’s not happening to them, they shouldn’t say anything or draw attention to themselves, or they might be next.

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The story of what really happened during the guerilla warfare in Guatemala.  I know it well, because I went to high school there as an American Field Service Exchange student for a year, and experienced some of the aspects of what was going on in the country, even though I lived in the city and those encounters were much less dramatic, but left me with permanent memories of the cultural differences and inequalities in life.  Mikaelsen begins this book on the night that Santiago Cruz’ village and entire family are killed, except for one of his little sisters Angelina.  His mother throws her into his arms and tells him to run, and keep going, not to look back, but he does and nearly gets caught.  In all of the turmoil, his uncle Ramos throws himself in Santiago’s path and tells him to get to his house a day and a half away from the harvest in Dos Vias, and take his kayak and sail for the United States.  Santiago is not to trust anyone.  The government will not help them.  All it wants is more land.   The guerillas will kill him and his sister as witnesses to the atrocities that they inflicted.  Somehow, near death they not only make it to his uncle’s home, they set sail for the United States, and near death, starving, beaten by a storm, and blistered by the hot sun and the salty water, they make it to Florida, where they are seen as boat people and not welcome, until one empathetic women calls 911, gets them the help that they need, and their story is told.  That’s the only way to make a difference and keep the United States government from continuing to send military equipment and train Guatemalan soldiers to fight against the guerillas.  It seems like it is the innocent, naïve, indigenous population of Guatemala that truly paid the price.

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Dylan's father was a foreign correspondent in Darfur where he was killed.  Dylan felt as though his father's work was more important than his mother and him, and now that he's dead, Dylan is angry with the world and becomes a juvenile delinquent. The last straw was when he got up in the middle of the night and stole a car from the junkyard and did donuts in a farmers planted field. His mother has to send him off with his Marine uncle for the summer as a last resort. It's either that or jail/juvie. But Uncle Todd has plans for the summer so Dylan has to tag alone, but he has to get in shape before they leave for the jungles of Papua New Guinea where they plan to search for the remains of his grandfather's WWII fighter plane.

When they arrive PNG they are confronted with all kinds of poisonous animals and insects.  Of course, Dylan still doesn't follow orders and obstinately does whatever he wants and goes off on his own, knowing full well the dangers and gets lost and bitten by a snake.  With the help of a young girl spirit, he finds the plane and eventually gets saved, nearly dying in the process.

A great adventure for a history buff, but totally interesting for everyone. It's truly magical.

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I read this book last summer when it was first adopted as part of the curriculum.  The background is similar to Red Midnight. Both are about civil wars in Guatemala. The main character Gabriela is called Tree Girl by everyone she knows, because she has this unique ability to climb higher than anyone else.  It is this innate ability that saves her life as she looks on to the massacre of her village. She finds two of her young siblings in the woods, but loses one of them because of a bullet wound along the way. As she and her little sister Alicia trudge along for miles, hunger and thirst, she gets separated from her, and continues alone looking for safety from the guerillas and the soldiers.

Amazingly she is reunited with her sister at the refugee camp and secures save passage and a new life to begin again. Another great read. It reminds me of my days in high school living in Guatemala, so true.