The Blue Helmet (Hardcover)

Canadian writer William Bell is well-known for his young adult fiction and has won the Mr.Christie’s Award and The Manitoba Readers’ Choice Award among others. His latest book is The Blue Helmet, which is a powerful story about a teenage boy’s rehabilitation.
The story is told from Lee Mercer’s point of view, a rebellious high school boy who has anger issues and is already a candidate for the Tarantulas, a local gang in his hometown of Hamilton. Lee lost his mother to cancer when he was seven years old, and he is still dealing with his grief. His father decides to send his son to live with his sister Reena in New Toronto. This wise decision will change Lee’s life for the better as he respects his aunt, who runs a modest café, frequented by students and eccentric street people.
At Reena’s Lee works for his room and board as a busboy and occasional cook. His aunt doesn’t judge him and doesn’t force him to go to school, for which Lee is thankful. He prefers to ride his bike in the neighbourhood on his time off and eventually gets extra work as a delivery boy for the pharmacy. This is how Lee meets a man named Cutter, a recluse, who will have a tremendous influence on the emotionally confused boy. Lee delivers the medicine that Cutter needs to manage his paranoia and post-traumatic stress from being a peacekeeper in the Balkan War, a secret he keeps from Lee, and his neighbours.
Bell handles the tragic themes of death and suicide in his novel with enough sensitivity to make the story appropriate for readers twelve to sixteen years of age. The violent scenes are handled with understatement. In fact, Lee has an epiphany after he has saved his Aunt Reena from further pummeling by an ex-boyfriend. As he sits next to his aunt at the Queensway General Emergency ward, waiting for the doctor, Lee recalls how he had struck a girl at school and now regrets it:

“And then Beth’s face flashed into my mind, staring up at me from the library bench after I had hit her, with that same uncomprehending look on her startled face.
As soon as it slithered into my mind, I tossed away the excuse that I had been justified.
That had always been my defense. It’s your own fault. You made me angry. You had it coming.
I was no different from the low-life I had almost thrown down the stairs.”

The climax of the book is somewhat contrived but it serves a good cause. By the end of The Blue Helmet, Bell’s main character Lee has learned his friend Cutter’s traumatic secret. And he has grown enough to be able to make peace with his father.
Anne Cimon (Books in Canada)

Winner of the 2007 CLA young adult canadian book award
An OLA top ten best bet for schools and libraries

“William Bell is arguably one of the most wide-ranging and reliable of Canadian authors. His range is impressive. So is the high quality of his writing.”
—Books in Canada

“The Blue Helmet reminds the reader that all actions have consequences, and that one must take responsibility. . . . Bell has created a fast-paced and moving story of a teen trying to find his place in the world.”
— (Highly Recommended) CM magazine


From the Trade Paperback edition.