Ben Mikaelsen has written many books including Tree Girl, Stranded, Sparrow Hawk Red, Touching Spirit Bear, Petey and more. Touching Spirit Bear has won many awards including YALSA best Book for Young Adults, ALA - 2002, North Dakota Flicker Tale Award - 2002, Nautilus Award for Young Adult Literature - 2002 and so many more. He has a pet bear named Buffy that he adopted and he is 750 pounds. He lives in a log cabin out in Montana. He can fly a plane and he does research on his books. He goes on adventures like living homeless on the streets of Mexico and swimming with dolphins. There is a sequel to this book called Ghost of Spirit Bear.