|
|
Avi. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. New York : Orchard Books, 1990. Reviewed by Seth D., Rundlett Middle School.
Charlotte is a 13 year old girl who is travelling to America to join her parents. She takes a ship called the Sea Hawk. The captain's name is Captain Jaggery. Charlotte thinks she is going to have a beautiful room with chandeliers hanging down. But she ends up getting a 4x6 room which is very small. Captain Jaggery seems to be very nice to her and introduces himself. Then Charlotte meets a man who is a worker. He gives her a dagger because he just doesn't trust anybody. Towards the middle of the book, Charlotte realizes that Captain Jaggery is getting rough with his crew. She decides to be one of the crew members. Captain Jaggery gets very upset with her and says that if she wants to do that, she will be known as Mr. Doyle. She thought about it and then agreed. Someone planned to kill the Captain and Charlotte found out about it when she found a round robin which is a sign of mutiny. The man gets 40 lashes and ends up dying. Then the first mate gets killed. Charlotte Doyle is blamed. The Captain gives her a choice of having a trial aboard ship with her crewmates or taking it to a court in America. Charlotte decides to trust her crewmates. They find her guilty. When she gets home, her parents are so happy to see her. They want to read her diary. They realize that she stopped writing half way through the voyage. When they asked her why she stopped writing, she didn't really tell them what happened. They don't believe her and keep asking her what happened. She ends up telling them that she was charged with mutiny and killing the first mate. Her parents decide to hide her.