Currents

 

This book follows the lives of 3 girls who are connected by a bottle that is thrown into the sea and carried adrift.  The story starts with Agnes May or "Bones" who is a slave in Virginia who is whipped for learning to read and write.  When she finds a ledger with her name and birthdate she rips it out and puts it and a heart made from a peach pit into a bottle and sets it adrift.  The bottle is found by Lady Bess who is the daughter of the Duke of Kent.  Lady Bess has her own troubles - one of which is a stepmother who is selling off her family's heirlooms.  Bess rescues a beloved necklace and puts that in the bottle along with Bess's paper and casts it adrift.  The bottle is finally found by Mary Margaret in Boston who is able to sell the necklace to pay for medical services. 

Each girl's potion of the book is about 90 - 100 pages long which sections the book quite nicely.  Each girl has adventures, friends, and problems that eventually intertwine.  How realistic is it that the bottle would travel such great distances and be found?  Probably not very but the story was enjoyable with good information about the time period.  I also liked the Maine connection with an author who grew up in Cape Elizabeth and lives part of the year in Scarborough.