Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales One Dead Spy Book Review by Nathan Hale


Written and Illustrated by Nathan Hale 

Published by Harry N. Abrams in 2012

ISBN: 978-1419703966

Plot Summary: Nathan Hale is a spy for the Americans during the revolutionary war. The book starts out with him on the hangman's gallows as he is going to be killed for treason. Nathan gets swallowed up by the Big Huge Book of American History and sees all the different battles struggles, and people that made up the american side in the revolutionary war. The book jumps back and forth the hangman gallows where a british officer and the hangman are just as interested in the story as the readers. There are many scenes and people that are talked about that aren't the well known people of the revolution like Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain boys. The story comes to a conclusion with him not being killed as the hangman wants to know more and will keep him alive as long as there are more tales. 

Critical Analysis: This book was a delight to read. History is boring can be heard throughout many classrooms and this book brings history to life in a medium that allows for even the most history hating person to find enjoyment. The illustrations can be cartoonish but it adds to the charm of the story. This book makes history fun as it emphasizes the stories behind the history and not just names, dates, and facts. The paintings of the characters and the biographies will be sure to make readers want to do some more research on their own. 

Review: Kirkus Book Review 

Nathan Hale, the famous spy of the American Revolution, tells his own story in this graphic-novel treatment of history.

The conceit of author Hale’s new series of Hazardous Tales is that his narrator has been swallowed by a big book of history prior to being hanged and thus knows the future of the country he helped bring into being. It’s a Scheherazade sort of premise, as Hale, convicted of espionage, forestalls death by telling stories from American history. In this volume, he’s helped by the hangman in telling the story of the early days of the revolution. He takes readers from his college days at Yale to the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, his joining the 7th Connecticut regiment, the Battle of Bunker Hill and other pivotal scenes in New England and New York City, where Hale works as an “intelligence officer” following the movements of the British troops to help General Washington develop his war strategies. Hale is caught and to be hanged…but not before he has, in this series, tales to tell. As in Big Bad Ironclad, which publishes simultaneously, the backmatter presents biographical sketches of the major players, further commentary on the execution of Nathan Hale, and even a mini-comic on Crispus Attucks of Boston Massacre fame. An innovative approach to history that will have young people reading with pleasure. (Graphic historical fiction. 8-12) 

Connections: Students can create their own 4 page comic about the historical events that happened in the American Revolution. Students could also create one page and then trade 4 times so that their comic will have different points of view and differing levels of ability with art and writing. 

More books by Nathan Hale

Big Bad Ironclad!: A Civil War Tale (#2) ISBN: 978-1419703959

Donner Dinner Party: A Pioneer Tale (#3) ISBN: 978-1419708565


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