The True Confessions of Chalotte Doyle

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi is an adventure on the high seas.

The Doyle family is moving back to Providence, RI from England. Charlotte, 13, will remain until the school year ends and then cross the sea in one of her father's company's ships. All though it is a cargo ship, there will be two families with kids her own age making the voyage with her.

Once school at the Barrington School for Better Girls ends, Charlotte is escorted to the ship, the Seahawk. Many of the romantic notions of sailing are dashed when she sees the old ship. Then she finds out that the other families will not be arriving.

What follows is the account of Charlotte, the only girl and the only non-crew member, on a voyage across the Atlantic ocean. Before they arrive in Rhode Island there will be mutiny, a hurricane, death, and a female member of the crew.

Avi. (1990). The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. New York: HarperCollins.

Crispin: The Cross of Lead

Crispin: The Lead of Cross by Avi won the Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American Literature for Children.

Crispin, known as Asta's son (no one ever told him his real name) has just lost his mother and become an orphan. Worse, the local authority has declared his a "wolf's head" - meaning anyone can kill him. He is not sure why he is being hunted. He did not steal the money they say he did.

Set in fourteenth-century England, Crispin cannot move around easily. He is a peasant and had never been outside of his town. But with the alternative being certain death, he ventures out on his own.

He soon meets Bear and becomes a servant once again. But Bear will help him find out who he really is and who his parents were. There must be a reason he is being hunted...

Avi. (2002). Crispin: The Cross of Lead. New York: Hyperion Books.