The Scottish Highlands were ruled for generations by trust, family bonds, love of the land, and the honor of the local laird. When death took the laird of Glendoun, Thomas McRoy, his half brother, inherited the lands. Looking to make a profit from poor soil, Thomas leased the land to the English for their sheep and forcefully evicted the tenant farmers. Roddy Macallan, young and romantically inclined, refuses to leave when his family’s cottage burns. Instead, he joins forces with Alan Dunbar, dubbed “The Rogue,” to stymie the laird and his minions. The Highland Clearances, which took place dur ing the eighteenth century, remain one of the most dishonorable periods in Scottish history. The Rogues is the fourth book in Yolen and Harris’s Stuart Quartet : Queen’s Own Fool (2000), Girl in a Cage (2002), and Prince across the Water (2004) . lmp

A Highland lad joins forces with a notorious Scottish “Robin Hood” to seek revenge on the greedy laird who destroyed the boy’s village

Authors Jane Yolen and Robert J. Harris have garnered resounding critical acclaim for their thrilling historical novels that bring Scotland’s colorful past to breathtaking life. Now they return to the Highlands with an enthralling tale of a young boy’s lawless coming of age during the dark days of the Clearances.
 
The early years of the 19th century are hard times for farmers in the Scottish Highlands. Young Roddy Macallan and his family are among the villagers cruelly driven from their lands when a new laird decides it would be more profitable to lease the ground to English sheep farmers. Returning in secret to the ruins of his home to retrieve a precious family heirloom—a “blessing” once presented to a Macallan ancestor by Bonnie Prince Charlie—Roddy is discovered and savagely beaten by order of the laird’s sadistic enforcer, William Rood, who then steals the treasure for his master. Were it not for the timely arrival of the notorious outlaw Alan Dunbar, the boy would surely be dead. Taken under the wing of the infamous “Rogue,” young Roddy begins a new life as a renegade. Now, against all odds and with the aid and guidance of his bold criminal mentor, the determined lad will seek a righteous vengeance on the powerful villains who wronged him and his clan.