Lee Mercer is angry with life and is on a fast track to trouble. When a cop intervenes and has Lee sent to live with his Aunt Reena outside of Toronto, Lee realizes he had better cooperate or else he will spend his best years behind bars. He helps out in his aunt’s café and gradually builds a new self-image as well as a delivery business on his bike. He befriends some of the local residents, among them Cutter, a depressed genius who feels the govern ment is out to get him. When Cutter dies and leaves his property to Lee, his only friend, Lee has to clean out Cutter’s house and files of research. As he reads Cutter’s journals of being a Blue Helmet Peacekeeper, he realizes there are multiple ways to respond to violence and hurt. CLA Young Adult Book Award (2007). sc

Lee wants to be a Tarantula – a member of the biggest, most powerful gang in his neighbourhood. But when his initiation goes wrong and the police catch him robbing an auto supply store, Lee’s father sends him to live with his aunt in New Toronto.

Lee feels more lost than ever. His mother’s death from cancer, and his father’s constant absence working two jobs mean he has practically had to raise himself. But though he initially resists his Aunt Reena and the customers of Reena’s Unique Café – a ragtag collection of the unusual, the unkempt and the deeply eccentric – Lee gradually learns to open himself up to his new surroundings. When Lee strikes up an unlikely friendship he is suddenly confronted by the ravages of violence, and is forced to face the consequences of his own aggression.

The Blue Helmet is a powerful portrait of one young man’s struggle to come into his own, and the peace that comes from the achievement.