Melissa McDonald LBSC 645 – Annotation April 9, 2012 Avi. (1900).The True Confessions of Charlotte Dolye. New York: Avon Books. For Ages 10-14. The 1991 Newbery Honor Book, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi is the coming of age story of a wealthy 13-year-old American girl in the summer of 1832. Note that this is a very bland, watered-down summary given that the book’s subtitle is a “spellbinding tale of intrigue and murder on the high seas.” In fact, she states at the beginning of the book “An Important Warning” that if the story of a 13-year-old who “is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty” offends, that the dear reader should not continue reading. Classified as a historical novel, the book chronicles Charlotte’s journey from her English school to her home in Providence, Rhode Island, via her father’s ship, the Seahawk. Because her father had instructed her to “keep a daily journal on [the] voyage across the ocean so that the writing of it should prove of educational value”, we are able to read her every detail of daily events. Through the extraordinary events summer of 1832 the reader discovers how the Charlotte Doyle that boarded the Seahawk in England was not the same Charlotte Doyle that disembarked in Providence. The repressed future gentlewoman was not to be – the winds called to her soul, and a sailor she had become. Avi is quoted as saying “Somewhere along the life, I can’t explain where, I developed an understanding of history not as a fact, but a story.”
Avi also believed that readers can more easily
understand historical facts when they are part of a story, and included elaborate details of what Charlotte saw, smelled, heard, tasted, and felt – not only in the literal sense of touching an object, but how she felt inside – and how she changed. For example, on page 124 “I screamed, tried to grab something. But I couldn’t. I clutched madly at nothing, till my hand brushed against a dangling rope. I grabbed for it, missed, and grabbed again. Using all my strength, I levered myself up and, wrapping my arms into the
lines, made a veritable knot of myself, mast, and rigging. Oh, how I wept! My entire body shaking and trembling as thought it would break apart.” Included is an Appendix which labels the parts of a brig, a deck, a mainmast, and a bowsprit. There is also a short chapter entitled “Ship’s Time” which explains the watches (on-duty time of teams of sailors on a ship). Both resources she refers her reader to on page 12.
What is missing is a glossary of
seafaring terms, despite that Charlotte often includes descriptions in her journal.