Kidnapped / Catriona

A 1001 CBYMRBYGU.

Young David Balfour discovers after his father's death that his family has unexpected wealth and power. David ventures off to meet up with his father's only brother and finds a man who deceives him and sells him off into slavery, sending David off on a ship bound for America. On the ship, David meets lots more bad guys and there is a lot of shooting and fighting. He falls overboard, survives to live for a while on an isolated island, and then gets thrown into a Scottish struggle for power, with more shooting and scavenging.

I loved the action in this book. With books like these available, you can see why so many boys read books a hundred years ago.

I also loved all the new-to-me words in this book. I could write a whole post on all the new words I discovered while reading this book. Ay, faith, I ken Scotland be a braw place, no sae bad as ye would think, in this bonny tale of a man and a halfling boy, who werenae feared of being laid by the heels, hoot-toot, hoot-toot.