Samantha DeVries' father is Lucas DeVries, a third-generation American of Dutch descent and master horseman; her mother, Gretchen, is an African American and a history buff who has traced her family's lineage back to 1875.
Caroline Chandler is the daughter of a plantation owner in
Mississippi who prefers her brother’s riding breeches to petticoats and
pantalettes. But in spite of her tomboyish interests, she has lived within the
boundaries of privilege and mid-19th century decorum. Soon after the
story begins, Caroline is sent to a neighboring plantation for a dreaded social
visit. While there, she learns that her family has fled their farm after Union
soldiers commandeered it.
Samantha (Sam) and Caroline’s worlds intersect when Sam
visits her father’s friend’s antebellum home to look at horses. Sam picks up
what appears to be a dime from her bedroom floor and falls asleep listening to
Lady Gaga on her Iphone. When she wakes
up, Caroline is staring at her and wondering what a slave is doing sleeping in
her bed.
Sam gradually convinces Caroline of who she is, although she
admits that she doesn’t know how she got there. Caroline is barely prepared for
her guest from the future: she has read about a man who travels to the future
and sees horseless carriages and flying machines. But she is even less prepared
to see a black girl who speaks, acts, and thinks as independently as Sam does. Fortunately,
their mutual love for horses helps ease them over their initial discomforts. Or
as Sam says, “No matter who you’re talking to, if they love horses you can get
beyond whatever barriers you think are out there...” (p. 45)
Told from both girls’ points of view, the reader watches as
Sam and Caroline experience slavery’s painful effects. I particularly enjoyed their
“ah ha” moments. When Sam first realizes
she must act like a slave in order not to be detected she thinks,
“I am in a nineteenth-century horse barn facing a man with a whip—a mean looking thing with a knotted leather thong—and I can tell he’s dying to use it on me.
“Yes, mister,” I mumble.
He raises the whip. “Go.”
So I shuffle off trying to look as dejected as possible, but inside I am raging with fury. How did my people live like this? (p. 83)
Later, after Sam is mistaken for a runaway slave and is
captured, Caroline thinks,
My fists curl into balls. Angry tears stream down my face. All I can think of is Sam huddled on the dirt floor of a slave cabin, being kicked and whipped. Without Papa to curtail him, Zeke Tuner will be brutal. He’ll unleash all his vicious fury on my dearest friend.
How did I not see this before?
Shame joins my angry tears. I’m angry with myself, and I’m ashamed of the world I’ve inhabited all my life without seeing it for what it really is.” (p. 137-8)
The author does a
great job of showing the girls overcoming their initial distrust and forming
their surprising friendship. In the process, each girl learns about the other
girl's seemingly foreign world. Their wit and strengths are tested after Sam is
captured; but working together they find a way of escape—and a way for both of
them to return to their families.
Maggie Dana’s love for all things equestrian is neatly woven
into the narrative and the plot. Although separated by 150 years, from the
moment that Sam asks Caroline, “What is
your horse’s name?” they have a common
bond. From the saddles, tack, to horse quirks and mannerisms, this novel is a
great example of an author using what she knows to build a believable,
fictional world.
I would recommend this book to girls from 6th-10th grade, as
well as to adults who want to use their own life experiences as a springboard
into fiction. And while you’re at it, it’s a terrific example of interlacing
multiple genres into one novel. Read it. Enjoy it. Learn from it.
