Kidnapped

By far, this has been the best book I've read this summer (and yes, I know there have only been three...) and also one of the best I've read in a long time. I have to send out a HUGE thank you to Sarah, who finally convinced me to read this book (honestly, the best way to get me to read anything is to put a copy in my hands, and tell me to read). I'll admit that at first, I had my doubts. True, she had told me wonderful things about this book, and I always hold Sarah's recommendations in high regard, but as I started reading, I wasn't totally convinced. But, all of a sudden, I just found myself grabbed by the shirtfront as it were, and dragged right into the action. This is an AMAZING book!

Kidnapped is the story of David Balfour. After the death of his father, he is sent to his uncle Ebenezer with a mysterious letter. His uncle, a strange, secretive man, tells him that he owes him a small amount for an inheritance, and after attempting to have him killed off, gets him kidnapped and sent off to the Carolinas to be sold into slavery. On the ship, he meets Alan Breck, a hot-headed young man from the Scottish Highlands. Together, the two of them get into all sorts of trouble, and set off on an adventure to earn David's inheritance back from his corrupt uncle, and to save Alan from the gallows.

I cannot say how much I loved this book! Stevenson is a master with words, and I can guarantee that I'm going to be reading more of his books in the future. Of course, I already read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde last summer, and I'll be reading it again this summer for my LXG Reading Challenge. But, I also hope to be able to read Treasure Island sometime in the future. I'm not sure what else Stevenson wrote....does anyone else know? If not, I can always Google it, haha.

When I learned that much of the dialogue was phonetically written in a Scottish dialect, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to understand it. However, I was delighted to find that it was not at all hard to decipher once you started reading for a bit. In fact, it was pretty easy to understand. And even better, I found that my limited knowledge of Middle English actually helped me greatly in understanding some of the more unusual terms that weren't mentioned in the book's meager gloss.... ken and bairn are terms that one doesn't hear every day, and it might have been confusing if I didn't know them from somewhere else, first. (Just for the record, they mean "know" and "child" respectively).

Overall, a wonderful book! Please read!