Blog 3 - The Blue Helmet

The novel The Blue Helmet by the Canadian author William Bell is about a troubled teenager named Lee Mercer who attempts to join a notorious gang called the Tarantulas. In his first initiation mission he gets caught by the cops. Luckily his father knows one of the police officers and lets him go. Doug, who is Lee’s father, does not think it will be a good idea for Lee to stay with him because he is working two jobs and still recovering from his wife’s death from cancer. He suggests that Lee stays with his Aunt, Reena in New Toronto. This plan starts the changes that occur in Lee’s life.

While he is in New Toronto with his Aunt he decides not to go to school and just work for Reena at her café. During this time in the café Lee meets many nice people and even some strange ones because his Aunt lets people who live on the streets come in for coffee and snacks. Lee also helps Reena by dropping off sandwiches and meals at customer’s homes. Through some of the people Lee connects with he takes on a second job as a delivery boy for a pharmacy. He becomes familiar with one of the patients on the route named Bruce Cutter who he spends quite a bit of time with. Bruce eventually commits suicide and leaves everything in his will to Lee. The result of Lee meeting Bruce teaches him how to find peace within himself.

I think the theme in William Bell’s The Blue Helmet is the challenge of growing up and facing different conflicts along the way. Lee is forced to deal with his mother’s death, the rejection of his father, experimenting with gangs, moving to a new town, living with a relative he hardly knows and dealing with new people.

The author William Bell writes in the first person and reflects his thoughts and feelings throughout the novel. I think it was very effective because we got to see how Lee felt about everything as a troubled teenager that opens up.

This book definitely pertained to adolescents and what they could possibly go through and how they cope because some teens have to deal with the death of family members and also gang peer pressure.

I didn’t notice any similarities to what we have learned in English class thus far but there might be similarities in other classes, like History because in the novel it talks about a war that Bruce Cutter was a peacekeeper in between the Serbians and Croatians.

The one thing that William Bell could do to make the novel better is to make it longer or make another book just like it because I personally thought it was the best book I have ever read.

I would definitely recommend this book to other teens but no children because there is some swearing and talk of deaths.

There are many rhetorical terms in the book The Blue Helmet and one that I found is an onomatopoeia, “, lulled by the click-clack, click-clack of the wheels, I wondered if I had changed.” (Pg. 179, paragraph 1)
Another rhetorical term in the novel is a metaphor when Lee and his Aunt Reena call Lee’s bike a tank. “, parked the tank against the house, and lifted the bag of food out of he pannier.” (Pg. 29, paragraph 2)

This is an amazing book by a great Canadian author and probably the best book I’ve ever read. Pick it up if you want a good read.

By: Logan Semple