Helicopter Man

This was an exciting novel about peter and his Dad. This was a great book with many different settings. Peter and his Dad were very close. Considering they were partly homeless and Peter's mother had died. They have been running away from the C.I.A. when his dad gets put into the hospital. Peter gets put into foster care. He hates school and his teacher. I would recommend this book to people who like intense books.

The style of writing drew me quickly into the novel. Peter and his thoughts about being hungry and the closeness to his father made me want to keep turning the pages. I had not read about this book, so as I continued to read a question popped into my mind. Something is wrong here; but what? I teach English to 9th graders and this is a book I would like to use in all my classes. The art museum, the mice, the planes create enough confusion that the young reader would fly with this book. Great writing, reading.

This review first appeared in the "Ephrata (PA) Review": Fensham, a teacher for 15 years in her homeland of Australia, set out to fill a void--a novel for children who have family members suffering from schizophrenia. "Information booklets were not enough to ease their pain and bewilderment," she writes. "I searched the library for a fiction novel that might both entertain and inform, but could find nothing." Fensham penned "Helicopter Man" so skillfully that it reads first and foremost like a novel--not a story superimposed on facts about mental illness. As the story opens, 12-year-old Pete and his father are "camping" in a dilapidated shed on someone's property. Pete's father must stay hidden or on the move. Convinced that a spy network is out to get him, he freaks when helicopters pass overhead. The story is told from Pete's viewpoint, through journal entries and letters to a friend, which lends a fresh authenticity to the account. Pete's entries range from musings on the past to his daily concerns, gradually revealing how he and his father have arrived at their present homeless state and how they are extracted from it. The story is gripping, the characters believable and likeable. American readers will be tickled by some of the Australian English and will enjoy piecing together the meanings of colloquialisms such as "chucking a wobbly."