Nothing But the Truth

Nothing But the Truth
By Avi

Genre: Realistic Fiction
Interest Level: Grades 5-8
Reading Level: P
Where to find this book: Boston Public Library

Phil Malloy is nearly failing his 9th grade English class. The explanation for the grade is of course that his English teacher, Miss Narwin, doesn't like him. Or so Phil says. It has nothing to do with the fact that he goofs off in class or that instead of writing an essay on his last test, he wrote a joke making fun of the book The Call of the Wild. The poor grade is a big problem because the coach of the track team will not allow Phil to run with the team unless he improves his English grade.

Phil's solution is to lay a trap for Ms. Narwin. If he can get her into trouble with the principal, then maybe the principal will switch him to a different English class. When Miss Narwin corrects him one morning for loudly humming or singing while the national anthem is being played over the school's sound system, Phil seizes the opportunity. Never mind that making any sounds during the national anthem is against the school rules and is considered disrespectful. Phil tells his parents that Miss Narwin will not let him sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at school. Phil's parents tell a local politician running for school board, who tells a newspaper reporter, who tells the superintendent of schools. Soon everyone in Harrison, New Hampshire and even in the whole state is wondering why a boy is not allowed to sing the national anthem in school.

Why shouldn't kids be allowed to sing the national anthem in school? Of course, most people don't know the real story. But the consequences that come from Phil's plan are out of control. Phil may not only get his wish of being transferred out of Miss Narwin's class; he also puts Miss Narwin in danger of losing her job. Will Phil lose control of this whole situation? Will he be allowed to join the track team? Will Miss Narwin be fired? Read Nothing But the Truth to find out the answers to these questions!

If you like realistic stories about problems in high school, then you'll want to read Nothing But the Truth. 

The Fighting Ground

The Fighting Ground
By Avi

Genre: Historical Fiction
Interest Level: Grades 5-8
Reading Level: V
Where to find this book: Boston Public Library

Did you ever hope and dream about something you wanted, only to discover when your dream came true that it was not what you expected? This is an insight that frames The Fighting Ground. The novel begins with 13 year-old Jonathan imagining Revolutionary War battlefields as sites of glory and heroism. When militia members in his New Jersey farming community are called to respond to British aggression on April 3, 1778, Jonathan eagerly joins them. He soon discovers the dark underside of war: pain, fear, death, and a blurring of right and wrong.

The entire novel takes place in the span of one 24-hour period. Jonathan joins his local militia in fending off a party of thirty Hessian soldiers. (Hessians were German mercenaries hired by the British army.) The two groups encounter one another on a rural road. Jonathan is positioned by his corporal among the first line of soldiers to fire upon the Hessians. In the heat of battle, with smoke filling the air and bullets flying, Jonathan.. runs. The confusion of battle, a badly injured follow soldier next to him, and his difficulty in handling and loading a heavy musket that is taller than him proves to be too much for him to handle. Jonathan is eventually taken prisoner by the Hessians. And that event only marks the beginning of his adventures as a Revolutionary soldier.

I recommend this book because it portrays the Revolutionary War in a way that many people do not consider. We often think of the War in a flippant manner. We minimize the impact of the War on the real lives of Americans. It is too easy for us to state which side--Patriot or Loyalist--we would have taken if we lived at the time. We dehumanize British soldiers and Loyalists. The Fighting Ground provides us with the story of an American teenager who discovers the horrors of war and eventually finds it difficult to say whose side he is on.

I have not always liked Avi's books. I read Nothing But the Truth many years ago and disliked it so much that I didn't read another of his books for another decade or so. It was my loss! Two years ago, I read Crispin: Cross of Lead and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. I could not put these books down. My eyes were glued to the pages! The adventure and intensity of the stories were top-notch--right up there with Harry Potter. If you're looking for an adventure of historical fiction, The Fighting Ground will not disappoint you!

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

I was wrong about Avi. Many years ago, I read Nothing But the Truth and did not like it at all. The story was jam-packed with teen “issues.” I read it in my early twenties, freshly out of my teenage years. I was relieved to not be a teenager anymore. Being a teenager is hard in almost every way. It may be that Nothing But the Truth reminded me too much of those years past.

I read Avi’s Crispin: Cross of Lead a few weeks ago and stayed up until 2 am to finish it. That book was suspenseful! I finished The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle--at 1 am this morning. I am now a solid Avi fan. The imagery and intensity of his historical fiction is top-notch. True Confessions has mutiny, murder, a mad ship captain, and high seas adventure, ironically with an upper-class teenage girl at the center of it all. I cannot think of a book that is more mismatched with its most-often-seen cover than this one. The only time Charlotte's clothes look as clean and puffy as that are in the first ten pages of the book. I’m glad I read it so that I can tell the students at my school what it's really about!

Old Dock, Liverpool, 1799. Charlotte boards the Seahawk
here on June 16, 1832. (From: The Maritime Gallery)

Charlotte Doyle is the daughter of a prosperous American businessman who had temporarily lived with his family in England for several years. Prior to the beginning of the story, Mr. Doyle moved his family back to their home in Providence, Rhode Island--all except Charlotte. Charlotte was to finish her school year in England, then travel home to Providence aboard a merchant ship, the Seahawk, with which her father had business connections. Two other families were to accompany her, but at the last minute were strongly warned by the ship’s crew to stay away. The crew was planning a mutiny against their ship’s captain and did not want non-sailors aboard to complicate their plans. Charlotte, however, was forced by her English guardian, who would not listen to the warnings, to board the ship anyway.

A brig is a sailing ship with two masts. It was a popular
ship design in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the story, the
Seahawk is a brig. Pictured here is the Niagara.
(From: Wikipedia)

These circumstances set the stage for a wildly terrifying voyage. The well-mannered and cultured Charlotte, a 13-year old girl, was in for a two-month Atlantic crossing with a crew of ten uncouth, violent sailors, a dirty roach and rat infested ship, and a captain who turned out to be raving mad. By the time the Seahawk arrived in Providence, Charlotte had helped Captain Jaggery to quell a rebellion by the crew, taken an oath of loyalty as a crew member, climbed to the main mast as the ship was blasted by the wind and waves of a hurricane, been tried and convicted of murder, and led a mutinous rebellion against Jaggery that resulted in his death. Hardly a story that fits well with the genteel Charlotte pictured on the book’s cover! In this blog post, I’ll provide you with some background information to help you to better understand the story and its setting. Of course, I’m hoping you’ll decide read the book and enjoy it as much as I did!

This cover provides a much
better idea ofthe story than
the one above.

The Seahawk, Avi explains, is "what is known as a brig, a two-masted ship (with a snow mast behind the main), perhaps some seven hundred tons in weight, 107 feet stern to bow, 130 feet deck to mainmast cap." (13) In the story, Charlotte incurs the wrath of Captain Jaggery after she defends a black sailor named Zachariah, the supposed leader of a mutinous crew. The first mate, Mr. Hollybrass, is commanded by Jaggery to whip Zachariah fifty times across his bare back. But, as Zachariah had become Charlotte's friend, Charlotte defends him by tackling Hollybrass and taking away the whip. As she backs away from Hollybrass with the whip in hand, she accidentally strikes Jaggery across the face with it, leaving a long, bloody cut.

From that moment, Jaggery hates Charlotte and schemes revenge against her. Charlotte seeks the protection of the crew by joining and taking an oath of loyalty to them. They permit her to join them (doing all the normal work of a male sailor) on one condition. She must climb the main mast of the Seahawk by herself in order to prove her seriousness. This is one of the most intense scenes in the whole book. She climbs the rope ladder barefooted and without any protection against a fall. As she nears the top, she notes that "what seemed like little movement on deck became, up high, wild swings and turns through treacherous air... This final climb was torture. With every upward pull the swaying of the ship seemed to increase. Even when not moving myself, I was flying through the air in wild gyrations. The horizon kept shifting, tilting, dropping. I was increasingly dizzy, nauseous, terrified, certain that with every next moment I would slip and fall to death." (125) What would it feel like to be Charlotte at that moment? Check out this video of someone climbing the main mast of the Charles W. Morgan, a 19th century whaling ship now kept at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. The mast of this ship is 110 feet tall, 20 feet shorter than that of the Seahawk.  



Charlotte boards the ship at Liverpool, England on June 16, 1832. They sail across the northern Atlantic Ocean to Providence, arriving on August 17th. (See this 1831 map, Atlantic Ocean.) The voyage has mostly good weather until a hurricane comes upon them off the coast of New England. By this time, Charlotte has become a member of the Seahawk's crew. I have already asked you to imagine climbing 130 feet up the mast of a brig. Now imagine climbing it during a hurricane on the ocean. Jaggery commands Charlotte to climb the mast and cut a sail loose. If a sail remains up during hurricane winds, the ship's wooden mast may crack and topple. Clearly, the job had to be done by someone. Of course, Jaggery, in his hatred for Charlotte, did not shy away from giving her a dangerous job like this. What's a hurricane on the ocean look like? Here's a video of one--but remember that the ship in the video is much, much bigger than a brig and can more easily remain stable the massive waves.

 

In the story, Captain Jaggery cruelly treats his crew. If a sailor makes a mistake in his work, the captain punishes him severely. One reason for the crew's mutinous anger toward him is that, on a prior voyage, he had beaten a sailor so badly that the man's arm had to be amputated. His cruelty extended to the risks he took concerning their safety. Before the hurricane arrives, one sailor explains Jaggery's hurricane strategy to Charlotte. "'I don't think the captain wants to avoid it.' 'Why not?'... 'The captain's trying to move fast. If he sets us right at the hurricane's edge, it'll blow us home like a pound of shot in a two-pound cannon.' 'What if he doesn't get it right?' ' Two pounds of shot in a one-pound cannon.'" Meaning, of course, that if Jaggery didn't get it right, the Seahawk would be floating (or sunk) on the Atlantic in two pieces, not one. The satellite picture of a hurricane below helps to more easily understand Jaggery's folly. 

The white parts of the storm have the highest winds. Jaggery wants to
keep the Seahawk on the edge of the white, so that he can catch
winds that will move the ship faster, but not so fast as to endanger the ship.
If Jagger arrives earlier in Providence than expected, then he stands
to profit financially. Of course, this idea of toying with a hurricane is a
risky proposition to begin with! (This picture comes from an
excellent article about hurricanes on the National Geographic website.) 

After reading this book, I was skeptical about how realistic the story is. Could a teenage girl really assume the work duties of a normal sailor and challenge the authority of a captain? But, as it turns out, there have been a handful of women throughout history who, by disguising themselves as men, taken to the sea on whaling ships, navy vessels, and as pirates. The National Park Service website has an insightful article about women sailors, Women in Maritime History. It notes that women and girls became sailors for many reasons: "dire emergencies while at sea, patriotic wartime duty, economic necessity, a chance at a better life, search for adventure, devotion, and love."

Did you ever wonder how you would live and how different of a person you would be if you lived at a different time in history? I wondered this while reading The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. I do not know if I would have the courage to stand up to the evil Captain Jaggery. I do not think I could have been a sailor in the days of sailing ships. I would have been a much better farmer, I think. But I sure do enjoy reading sea adventures like this one that Avi has given us. If you like adventure and suspense in historical fiction, you should read it. I don't think you'll regret it!