Isabelle, from Harper Woods, MI, writes, “I was wondering if you’re going to make a sequel to The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle?”

In the years since the book was published I have been asked that question many times, even before sequels became popular. 

It seems to me that Charlotte’s story, among a number of things, is about her gaining the power and courage to make choices for herself—to decide what she wishes to do with her life. Of course, in the story, her biggest decision, her biggest choice, is what to do after the events on the Seahawk, after she returns home to Providence, RI. Since I feel Charlotte’s achievement is the ability to make choices for herself, to tell the reader what that choice might be would diminish the book’s power. That openness is what, I think the book is about. I am a strong believer that a book, once written, belongs to the reader, not to the writer. Since I have no idea what Charlotte might do, I want every reader to make that choice on their own, even as I want every reader to have that power in their own lives. We all have the power to write our own sequels. The sequel I won’t write is one for The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. Isabelle, you are going to have to do that on your own.