Helicopter Man

Elizabeth Fensham (author)

Bloomsbury Children's Books, Australia: 2005

ISBN: 0747575495 

Note: extension concepts

Genre: realistic fiction

Issues: choices, change, ethics, family, friendship, identity, mental health, trust

CBCA Book of the Year 2006: Younger Readers.

Pete is not quite sure why he and his dad have to hide all the time, keeping on the move and avoiding helicopters. But he knows his dad is trying to keep them safe.

His father is a well educated man, a journalist and a great reader. Although he's concerned what might happen if the boy's notes ‘fall into the wrong hands', he still encourages Pete to develop his own writing skills. In his diary Pete records his confusion, his great love for his father, his own loneliness and yearning for a more ‘normal' life, and the great sense of responsibility he feels for his dad. His grief over the death of his mother is clear and his uncertainty about whether she did really die or, as his father insists, was forced away against her will and is currently in need of rescue.

A dark, intense novel, with some violent and distressing scenes, this is, nonetheless, a sensitively constructed exploration of the confusion and responsibility felt by a child whose parent has a mental illness.

Cleverly written to draw reader sympathy for both the child and the father before the mental illness is revealed, Fensham repositions the reader's possibly judgemental attitudes towards schizophrenia. Characters in this novel are complex and the relationships between adults and Pete, virtually the only child character, are thoughtful and realistic. Although written with for a very specific purpose - to show the many problems experienced by the children of the mentally ill - Fensham has still managed to create a fluent narrative.

This is a powerful, thought provoking read but definitely a book for older, more emotionally experienced readers. It would perhaps have been better placed in the Older Readers category.

Warning: descriptions of drug use and an assault upon an old homeless man