The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Author | Avi |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Released | 1990 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-380-71475-2 |
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle is a book written by Avi and published by Scholastic Press in 1990. While written for a young audience (11–13), the book is well liked by many adults as well. It won a Newbery Honor award in 1991. The book is told from a girl name Charlotte Doyle's point of view and is split into Part One and Part Two.
[edit] Plot summary
The book tells the story of Charlotte Doyle, a 13 year old girl, who boards a ship called the Seahawk in 1832 for a voyage from England to her home on Rhode Island. She is raised is an upper-class family and, as she says in the beginning, wants to be a lady. The author puts much emphasis on her wanting to be proper. Her family has already gone to Rhode Island and she was left to come alone in order to finish her year of schooling at the Barrington School for Better Girls. As the other families that were supposed to accompany her mysteriously fail to appear, Charlotte finds herself the only passenger on the voyage to Rhode Island and the sole female on board.
Charlotte is devastated by the horrible conditions on the ship and thinks the crew as her inferiors. Captain Jaggery is the only person Charlotte can relate to on the ship. Early in the voyage she meets Zachariah, an old African cook. Zachariah gives Charlotte a small knife "for her protection" and tells Charlotte that the crew seeks revenge against the captain for some of his actions. She later has tea with Captain Jaggery. During this meeting, Captain Jaggery tells Charlotte that he has two muskets and that those are the only guns aboard on the ship. As the book progresses, she slowly mingles with the crew and reads to them from her books.
Later in the book Charlotte finds herself watching a member of the crew sew. The needle snaps and Charlotte offers to get a new one for him. She goes into the forecastle, the crew's room. While looking for the needle she sees a pistol (contrary to the captain's words) and a round robin, a pact telling of an iminent uprising of the crew against the captain. Charlotte goes to tell Captain Jaggery, who then calls the crew on deck. They arrive with weapons, ready to attack, but none do so because of the captains muskets. Charlotte is forced to take sides in the mutiny. A member of the crew is killed and Zachariah and whipped mercilessly by the Captain. Now Charlotte does not think so highly of Captain Jaggery anymore and feels that he is rather cruel.
Charlotte decides to join the crew to make up for causing the death of the crew member. She is at first rejected, but then the crew agrees to let her in if she can climb to the highest point of the ship, the royal yard. After an arduous climb, she comes back down successfully. She learns to do the crew's jobs.
The captain leads the ship into a hurricane. In the commotion the First mate is killed with Charlotte's knife. The captain charges Charlotte with the murder of the ship's First Mate. The captain finds Charlotte guilty after the trial. Though sentenced to be hanged, she ends up confronting the captain on the bowsprit and as Captain Jaggery was about to fall over board, Charlotte had the option to save him, or let him fall to his watery death. The captain falls into the ocean and drowns. Her friend, Zachariah, tells the crew they need a new captain, and Charlotte is chosen to be the new captain of the ship (in name, while Zachariah takes charge instead).
A few days later the Seahawk lands in Providence, RI, where her family lives. However, she finds her family unwilling to believe her story. Eventually she decides to leave her family and return to life at sea, the place where she now believes is home.
