Kidnapped

R.L Stevenson

Sep. 2012 · Random House

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'For God's sake, hold on!'

On a stormy night off the coast of Scotland, young David Balfour faces his most terrifying test yet. He's been double-crossed by his wicked uncle, tricked into a sea voyage and sold into slavery. When the dashing Alan Breck Stewart comes aboard, he finds a brave friend at least, and the pair fight back against their treacherous, black-hearted shipmates. But then the ship hits a reef, it's every man for himself, and David must battle against the raging sea itself!

BACKSTORY: Learn about the true stories that inspired this adventurous tale!

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Robert Louis Stevenson was born in Edinburgh in 1850. He was an intelligent but sickly child and so he started to make up stories to entertain himself. He once wrote, 'I have three powerful impressions of childhood: my sufferings when I was sick, my delights in convalescence at my grandfather's manse of Colinton, near Edinburgh, and the unnatural activity of my mind after I was in bed at night.' During the summer of 1881, Stevenson and his family were staying in a cottage in Braemar in Scotland. One afternoon he began drawing a map to amuse his stepson, but found that he himself was carried away, 'As I pored upon my map of "Treasure Island", the future characters of the book began to appear there visibly among imaginary woods: and their brown faces and bright weapons peeped out upon me from unexpected quarters ... the next thing I knew, I had some papers before me and was writing out a list of chapters'. And so Treasure Island was begun and published in 1881. Robert Louis Stevenson is the author of Kidnapped and The Children's Garden of Verses as well as the adult book, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. During his short life Stevenson travelled the world from the South Pacific to the USA, Europe to Australia. He died at the age of 44 years old on a small Samoan island in the Pacific.