I recently picked up a copy of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and read the whole thing. This was an entertaining book written by an author that goes by the name AVI. You can walk into almost any bookstore, go to the children’s section, look under Independent Reader ages 8 – 12 and you will see shelves of his books. He is, at the least, a prolific author in his chosen genre and field.
The reason I picked up a copy of this book, in particular, is that I was told I didn’t have a good enough grasp of how to write a young girls POV when describing how she would see someone else, like her mother or an older version of herself. What I’d done was write something that consisted of a man, adult, looking at a woman who was meant to be very attractive with specific features. These features, though, would be something that a young girl would notice, though not in the same way as a man.
In essence, I misinterpreted how someone might look at the same image as me. The outcome, buy a book that does something similar to what I want to accomplish. I would copy the two instances of the part of the story to illustrate… wait, that’s actually a VERY good idea…
These examples come from a couple different drafts of an introductory story for Cassandra West:
“Cassandra looked at herself in the mirror. She expected to see a short, thin, dark haired girl. Instead, she saw a woman, slightly taller than herself, wearing canvas pants and a cotton top with strings tying it together from just below what looked like considerable breasts showing off her cleavage at the top. The woman had a pair of holsters hanging over each hip complete with .45 Colt Peacemakers in the holsters with dozens of additional rounds on the outside of the belt. Her feet were covered in leather moccasins that came up to her mid-calf over the top of the canvas pants; leather cords wrapped around her ankles and ties at the top keeping the moccasins in place. This woman had bright, sun-bleached, blonde hair.
Cassandra looked at the woman in the mirror. She reached toward the glass without touching. “I want to be her.”“
That was the instance that brought several less than enthusiastic comments. This is what caused me to buy The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. The next draft looks like:
“Angling herself into the room so she was standing in front of the mirror, she looked at her reflection. Instead of seeing a short, thin, dark haired girl wearing an off-white nightgown with some embroidery on it, she saw a woman, slightly taller than herself, wearing canvas pants and a cotton top with strings lacing it together from mid-belly to three or four inches below her neck. The woman in the mirror was clearly older, more of an age with her mother, except more round at the hips, a thinner waste, more defined torso, and less matronly. The woman wore a pair of holsters hanging over each hip complete with too large .45 Colt Peacemakers and dozens of additional rounds in loops on the outside of the belt. Her feet were covered in leather moccasins that were laced up with leather cords around ankles and calves and tied at the top at mid-calf over her canvas pants. The most distinct difference between the woman in the mirror and Cassandra’s mother was the sun-bleached blonde hair.
Cassandra looked at the woman in the mirror. She reached toward the glass without touching. “I want to be her.”“
I think the second one reflects a better representation of what a young might do if faced with a woman who is meant to be attractive, but not described the same way as the first one. The outcome, between these two, is, quite literally, that you describe shape (girl) rather than feature (boy).
Anyway, the book covers the life of Charlotte Doyle, a young girl traveling across the Atlantic on a ship owned by her father’s company. As the ship sets sail, things begin to happen from her seeing faces where she shouldn’t to individuals of the crew informing her of a possible mutiny. The outcome, Charlotte Doyle is tried and convicted of murder, though how you get to that point is entirely amazing as the author doesn’t give a lot away until it happens.
I took a couple of weeks to read the book, as I was, and am, in the middle of school work and reading other things, as well as writing on Alicia Grey and Cassandra West, and as a result, would spend several joyous minutes flipping through pages and sitting on the edge of whatever chair I was using hoping that Charlotte would survive and knowing that she (first person POV) was narrating the story as an adult looking back, but losing myself enough in the telling of the story that I would think, “This girl is about to die.”
Ultimately, the book was purchased as an example of what I needed to be doing and ended up being an example of an exceptionally well written book by someone who is very talented at what he does. I would suggest, to anyone looking for a good, simple, easy read that will keep you hooked, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and I can see myself insisting that any daughters I have, someday, read this book.
With that said, I did not agree with how the story ended, but I couldn’t think of a way to end the story that wouldn’t radically change the book from what it is to something else entirely.