Kidnapped

by Lisa Norby

Seventeen-year-old David Balfour's villainous uncle has him kidnapped in order to steal his inheritance. David escapes only to fall into the dangerous company of rebels who are resisting British redcoats in the Scottish highlands.  

Genres: Historical Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[JayD · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be clear, this is Robert Louis Stevenson's "Kidnapped" as adapted for children by Lisa Norby (ISBN: 978-0679850915) as a Bullseye Step into Classics/Stepping Stone Book. The information on Goodreads and Amazon is incorrect and I have filed a report with Amazon. Perhaps they'll fix their description and details, but since some versions received terrible reviews, I would be very careful about which version you buy. The various editions vary both in the quality of the writing and in the quality of the paper.

The book I have is a very simplified version of RLS's "Kidnapped". The original has a great deal of repetition: lots of tramping across Scottish highland hills and so on. This children's version mostly just cuts out a lot of that repetition, and simplifies the rather old-fashioned Scottish dialect. The adventure remains true to the original.

The recommended age is 6-9 years. I should say a minimum of at least 7 years for children to read the book by themselves, because the whole point of the story revolves around the Jacobite rebellion of the mid 18th century. The story can become a little confusing if you don't understand that. Here's a sample showing what I mean:

Alan saw me frown. "And what about you? Are you for the Stuarts? Or are you a Whig?" he asked.

The Whigs were the party loyal to King George. I was a Whig all the way. But this did not seem like a good time to pick a quarrel. "In between," I said.

[Isabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy good read and great intro to classics