The Blue Helmet by William Bell

I don't understand book marketing. Why is this book available in Canada and only available through resellers in the United States? It isn't as though Amazon hasn't figured out international shipping. And, anyway, shipping to Alaska from Canada can't be THAT much different from shipping to Alaska from wherever Amazon books come from in the United States. And, another anyway, I doubt that marketing has anything to do with shipping. So, again, why isn't this book regularly stocked by Amazon US?

The story: Lee has been floundering since his mother died of cancer when he was 7. His father works two jobs to try to make ends meet and Lee has essentially raised himself. Raising himself gets him into trouble when he discovers that kids won't pick on you if you beat them up enough. Lee is determined to join the best gang in his area and is doing the last initiation rite - breaking in to a warehouse store - when he is caught by the police and taken in. The cop knows his dad, though, and, when his dad agrees to send him to live with the dad's sister, Lee's aunt, the cop tells him that he will forget about the charges for the time being, as long as Lee keeps out of town and out of trouble. But, if there is any trouble, he will throw the book at him for all of the assaults and the breaking and entering charge that are waiting for him.

Lee has to work at his aunt's house. His aunt owns and operates a coffee house style restaurant and Lee soon gets involved in making deliveries, both for the restaurant and for a local pharmacy. In the course of delivering food and medicines, Lee gets to know several of the customers, including one paranoid and rather reclusive man in his thirties, who is hovering on the edge of sanity.

I like this book. At first, some of the writing sounded a bit awkward to me - too many things described with oily, greasy, fatty words, but soon the characters took over and I couldn't help being interested in what made them tick. It is a book with a good heart and a powerful message - or set of messages. I am not going to describe how Lee figures out what caused his paranoid friend to go over the edge, because figuring that out is part of the book's intrigue. But it is satisfying to see Lee gradually feel better about himself and to discover that he can be a decent person.

And I like the way the adults in the story deal with Lee. They don't hesitate to give him advice, but they also let him know that it is only advice - it is his decision about how he will use it. All in all, a satisfying story.

Oh, yeah, and other people agree with me. This book just won the Canadian Library Association's book of the year award for young adult literature. Too bad it hasn't gotten wider circulation in the United States.