Wish Me Luck

Heneghan (Torn Away) pulls off a rare achievement: he creates historical fiction that does not depend on historical incidents--even so dramatic an incident as the WW II torpedoing of an ocean liner--for its tension, momentum or purpose. The narrator, 12-year-old Jamie Monaghan, grabs the reader's attention immediately with his colorful Liverpool slang and his pitch-perfect reporting of the truculent reception given to the sinister-looking new kid at school, Tom Bleeker, who happens to be Jamie's next-door neighbor. Then bombs start falling on Liverpool, and, over Jamie's protests, his parents wangle a spot for him on the City of Benares, a luxury liner being used to bring British children to the safety of Canada. Unlike many novels about the Titanic and other famous disasters, this vigorous story is not overhung with ominous foreshadowing: when Jamie boards the ship, his only real worry is about sharing his cabin with Bleeker. And when Bleeker thinks he sees U-boats and mutters about setting sail on Friday the 13th, his fears seem unreasonable. After the ship is hit, Heneghan shifts into high gear, describing the action and the terror with nail-biting details. Because the characters seem so real, the reader shares their shock and horror and breathes in relief at their rescue. Eye-opening and utterly gripping. Ages 12-up. (May)