"Thundering Spirit" by Sigmund Brouwer
A Review by Matthew
Summary:
           The title of the novel I read is Thunderbird spirit. The story is told though the main character Mike Keats who finds himself trapped in a conflict between his good friend and teammate Dakota, who is Native American, and some of Dakota’s old friends who are criminals. Dakota and Mike are taken hostage and tangled up in a criminal plot through a set of unfortunate circumstances. The author creates a very extreme set of dangerous circumstances that Mike and Dakota have to deal with. He compares these life-threatening situations, which require a cool head, to some minor situations in hockey that people often over
react to. I would recommend this book to everyone especially to help kids and parents who stress competition too much.

Suspense - This story was not jammed with suspense. Some of the scenes did keep me on the edge of my seat. The most suspenseful thing was when the main characters were drifting towards certain death. The story is very unpredictable and keeps you
guessing as to what will happen next. This kept me interested and anxious to see the outcome. There were enough interesting twists that held my attention and kept me interested until the end, which had a happy out come.  It was also very suspenseful.

Character Development - The main characters mike and Dakota changed. Mike learned about honor. Dakota learned a lot about his friends. As the story progressed the characters all had some growth and Mike in particular had some eye opening experiences.
Because the circumstances he found himself in were so serious he had to learn to control his temper and focus on the one thing that he could always have control in every situation and that was his reactions and ways to cope under challenges. The author developed the characters well. I really got to know the characters. The author really explained the characters really well.

Important Lessons - Both the characters and me learned valuable lessons about controlling your temper. I also learned about enjoying hockey not taking it to seriously. Mike learned about losing gracefully. Dakota learned about understanding. These are all valuable lessons.

Imagination - The characters were every day people. The author didn’t use much imagination. The words were not overly descriptive. The plot wasn’t that good either. The imagination wasn’t really that good. 

Difficulty - The words used weren’t that good. The book was recommended for ages 10 -14 but I found the vocabulary was fairly easy. The plot was easy to follow. In the beginning mike has a bad temper that he can’t control. When they were kidnapped he realized that having a bad temper didn’t help. By the end of the story he could control his temper. The story was easy to follow and the underlining message was for people to learn to control themselves and to behave with dignity. The one thing that people can do is conduct themselves with honor and pride and some situations are too small to get worked up over like who wins or loses a hockey game. 

Overall recommendation - I would recommend this book to a grade five student.

More Info
 Sigmund Brouwer