The Grave

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

In The Hand of Robin Squires, Joan Clark took a mysterious bit of truth
about a severed hand found in an alleged treasure pit in Nova Scotia and
spun a story around it. Similarly, James Heneghan has created a most
engaging plot by taking some “reality” (the 1973 discovery in
Liverpool, England, of a mass grave containing some 3500 coffins) and
then proffering his own explanation for its existence. Eschewing
Clark’s vehicle of historical fiction, Heneghan utilizes time-slip
fantasy.

At the core of The Grave is a boy’s attempt to discover “family,”
a task complicated by his not knowing his real identity. Tom’s
surname, Mullen, came from the couple who adopted him following his 1961
abandonment in a Liverpool department store. After his adoptive
parents’ death/incapacitation, Tom was put in foster care. Now, in
1974, Tom, nearly 14, is desperately miserable in his foster situation.
Seemingly called to a nearby fenced-off grave pit, Tom “falls” in
and awakens in 1847 Ireland during the potato famine. Tom is
“adopted” by the Monaghan family after he uses his 20th-century
knowledge to resuscitate their drowned son.

Throughout the story, Tom moves in time. In the past, by sharing in the
Monaghans’ hardships following their eviction from their land, he
feels part of a family. In the present, his increasing misery causes him
to elect to remain in the past. Rejoining the Monaghans, Tom finds they
are in Liverpool, where two plague-struck family members are dying.
Suddenly realizing his true linkage to this family, Tom reveals his
connection to the future and explains why he must irrevocably return
there. (Heneghan provides readers with one more believable surprise
about Tom’s past.)

Heneghan’s dual, but connected, stories will easily hold the
attention of young-adult readers. Highly recommended.