Outlaws of Ravenhurst
by Sister M. Imelda Wallace

Ten-year-old George has grown up with a poor farmer’s family in the colony of Maryland, but he discovers that he is actually a Scottish lord and his uncle takes him back to Scotland to be the chief of the Gordon clan. The Gordon clan are traditionally Catholic, but Catholicism has been outlawed in Scotland, and the young chief must now decide if he will risk his life for his faith.

This book has such a great adventure plot as young George explores a secret passage, discovers prisoners kept in the dungeon, and finds a ruined chapel in the forest. He secretly meets with a priest, and when his mother disappears, he must rescue her from the evil machinations of his uncle.
As George learns more about the history of the Gordon clan, he is inspired to dare any danger to keep his Catholic faith. His uncle insists that they must comply with the laws, and tries to mislead George into renouncing Catholicism.

Being a Protestant myself, I was interested to see how this historic conflict was handled. Not once do we see a true believing Protestant character in the story. The whole conflict is between faithful Catholics and greedy politicians who comply with Protestantism as a way to gain power but who have no Christian faith of their own. I also thought it was interesting that while the evil uncle is very keen to get George to renounce Catholicism, there is no mention of him trying to convert George to Protestantism. They don’t attend a Protestant church. He never speaks to a Protestant preacher. There is simply no mention of the Protestant faith at all. As if it doesn’t even exist.

The writing is excellent! I loved all the adventure and suspense. George’s character is really wonderful, as he faces all these horrible challenges but remains courageous and steadfast. Such a good story!

There is quite a lot of violence in this book as different battles are described or people escape from torture and imprisonment and tell of the terrible things they endured. It’s not too graphic though, so it was fine.
To see all the instances of violence in this book, you can check it out on the Screen It First website!
https://screenitfirst.com/book/outlaws-of-ravenhurst-238953