Currents

Bones is a slave girl on a Virginia plantation; Lady Bess is the daughter of the Duke of Kent, living on the Isle of Wight; Mary Margaret is an Irish immigrant residing in Boston. When Bones finds her real name–Agnes May–written in her master’s slave registry, she rips out the page and places it in a bottle that she sets free on the James River. Over the course of two years, this bottle travels back and forth across the Atlantic, linking the three girls together. Each girl’s story is compelling in its own right, but together they weave a tapestry of intelligence, courage, and resourcefulness. Smolik’s writing is beautiful, supported by research (sourced at the back of the book) that gives each girl’s narrative a distinct tone and sense of place. This is a story about the inherent freedom of language and ideas. As such, the concept of lives linked so tenuously rings with authenticity despite the seeming implausibility of the bottle’s journey.
–Booklist


Three strong-willed girls from dramatically different backgrounds connect through the contents of a bottle when currents carry it back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean. Whipped for learning to read and write, 11-year-old Bones, a slave on a Virginia plantation in 1854, removes the entry with her name, birth date, and slave status from the plantation birth register. She tucks it into a sealed bottle with a small carved heart and tosses it into the James River, determined that part of her will “forever be free.” By 1855 the bottle lands on the Isle of Wight, England, where 12-year-old Lady Bess discovers it, removes the heart, and adds her deceased mother’s necklace to prevent her mercenary stepmother from stealing it. Eventually, 12-year-old Irish immigrant Mary Margaret retrieves the bottle from Boston’s harbor in 1856 and uses Bess’ necklace to help her sick sister. Authentic period detail and historic references lend realistic depth to Bones’, Bess’, and Mary Margaret’s engaging individual stories, which, though told separately, are linked by the impact of the traveling bottle on their lives. An illustration of each heroine adds visual context. A carefully crafted, inspiring 19th-century tale of courage and chance, this novel is a natural for lovers of the past.
-Kirkus Reviews