Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy Author: Visit Amazon's Nathan Hale Page | Language: English | ISBN:
141970396X | Format: EPUB
Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales: One Dead Spy Description
From School Library Journal
Gr 3-8-One Dead Spy begins as Nathan Hale is about to be hanged. He was not a very good spy. But in the hands of Nathan Hale, the present-day graphic novelist, he makes an excellent narrator. American history is hilarious in these lively, rigorously researched, visually engaging stories. α(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
About the Author
Nathan Hale is the illustrator of the graphic novel Rapunzel’s Revenge, which was an Al Roker Book Club for Kids selection, an ALA Notable Book, and a YALSA Great Graphic Novel for Teens and earned three starred reviews. He is also the illustrator of several picture books. He lives in Provo, Utah, with his wife and their two children.
- Age Range: 8 - 12 years
- Grade Level: 3 - 7
- Series: Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales
- Hardcover: 128 pages
- Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First Edition edition (August 1, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 141970396X
- ISBN-13: 978-1419703966
- Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I have been a fan of Nathan Hale (the spy, not the author, who I'd never heard of before) since I was a kid forty years ago. I have a rather large collection of books about him, including my prizes, an original Stuart from 1856 and a copy of Seymour's "Documentary Life". This book will go well on that shelf.
The premise of this book is a bit of magic realism: As Nathan Hale speaks his last words, a huge history book swallows him up. A few minutes later he emerges, starry eyed (but still with his hands tied behind his back), explaining that "I'm in the history book now" and that he has read the future history of America. He tells the enthralled hangman and the British soldier (who I take to be William Cunningham) the story of his life and of the beginnings of the American Revolution. When he comes to the end of his story, they want to know more, so like Scheherazade, he postpones his execution by spinning more tales, which will be a future series of graphic novels (I can't wait for the one about Benedict Arnold).
The book is very funny, with a lot of gallows humor--literally, since the frame story all takes place on the gallows. For example:
Hangman: Do you have any regrets?
Hale: I regret that I only have one life.
Hangman: Ha ha! Good one! If you had an extra life you could be hanged, then just walk away.
One of my favorite bits of silliness was this one: "George Washington. He's from Virginia. He looks like this." "Meh. This is my George. King George." "George vs. George. They sort of look the same." "By George! They do look the same."
There are also poignant moments, including this one, just after Hale comes out of the history book:
Hangman: Does it happen? Do you get hanged in the future?
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