The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

The trajectory itself was the excitement! The strong-willed woman in an implausible fight against sinister forces greater than her.

Ten year-old Isaiah doesn't give a damn if it's implausible that the lace-frilled, permed and buxom Charlotte reject her social mores, jump on a ship and start swabbing and mizzen yard-arming. I also read some of the other reviews here for this book, and I have to say, on behalf of ten year-old Isaiah, that you're missing the point. And it has a heroine! And she's good for something besides good manners! Either this is way out of character for me, or perhaps as a ten year old I wasn't a cranky misogynist (unlikely). But for several years after I just started to read YA novels, I thought this book was the epic shit. I can't believe how completely I had forgotten it. She learns that, ultimately, your choices in life are what define you, not your circumstances.This book just flashed into my mind this evening unbidden. There are few literary heroines today who demonstrate the same amount of self-awareness, candor, and moral compass that Charlotte does. She grows from the first pages of the book from a naive girl into a young woman who questions what she knows is not right. More than that, however, the story is about Charlotte herself. To complicate matters further, the ship’s captain is losing his mind and his descent into madness is heightened in intensity by the plotting of his mutinous crew. Set in an age where propriety was the main concern, Charlotte is the lone female passenger on a ship bound for America.

Charlotte swears to tell us the truth of her voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1832 in all its detail, and as a narrator, she does not disappoint. With the words, “Not every thirteen-year-old girl is accused of murder, brought to trial, and found guilty”, Charlotte’s tale begins. Not only is it a Newbery honor book, but Charlotte’s tale has received accolades as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and, when it came out in 1990, it was a School Library Journal Best Book. I actually reread this book about once a year it was the book that inspired me to become an author. With a movie in the works, which will no doubt bring this tale of mutiny on the high seas to a new generation, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle deserves a second look. Publisher: HarperCollins (August 10, 2004)

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi