From the Bookshelf of Clean Reads…

[close] The Rogues explores an era in Scotland when lairds expelled crofters from their land to rent it to English sheepherders as grazing land. Roddy is a young man whose family is burned out of their cottage and forced off the land. While striving to help them relocate to America, he embarks on a dangerous adventure in the Highlands of Scotland.

Teens can relate to Roddy’s determination to succeed despite the odds, and parents might be grateful for several adult characters who are good role models. They will need to know about a few instances of bad language using the “d” word, and the British “b” word. There is some drinking and a scene in which a man is killed. They also need to know that wars and battle are handled with the care of someone who understands the cost of real combat to people’s lives, whether they live or die on the battlefield. Human life is respected and guarded: “The taking of man’s life is a scar that heals hard” (185).
Dunbar is the most engaging character who is proof that people and their problems are complex, as we hear through Roddy’s words: “And then I thought: What a puzzle he is. One moment a rogue and the next a man worthy of the Highland Chiefs of old” (247). Through his quest Roddy matures and grows wiser - a bildungsroman theme with the authenticity of lifelike history, the excitement of adventure, and the moral and physical trials that come with it.