Nathan Hales's Hazardous Tales
Comics and graphic novels make up a big portion of my reading material. Plus, I'm a history teacher. So, naturally, Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales piqued my interest. I think I stumbled across the series while browsing Amazon -- you should see all of my wishlists! -- and I've read as many of them as I could get my hands on.
If you start in the middle of the series, the whole set-up is that the spy Nathan Hale -- yep, the author shares a name with the Revolutionary War hero -- is about to be executed. In a nod to 1001 Arabian Nights, Hale is delaying his execution by telling the hangman and the provost stories from American history that he learned when he was struck by a magical textbook. The first book, One Dead Spy, explains it all.
I just finished reading Major Impossible, which is about John Wesley Powell's expedition of the Grand Canyon. Yes, that is a library bar code that you see -- shout out to Coalinga Library! I get most of my books from my hometown library; it's so easy to reserve books online and (in my town) they get shipped for free.
Major Impossible has all of the features that make the Hazardous Tales series so good: history, adventure, and humor all in a comic book format.
Check out this trailer, narrated by the author:
There are nine books in the series, and so far I've read seven of them. After listening to the Following Harriet podcast, The Underground Abductor is next on my list.
Nathan Hale has written and drawn other graphic novels (click on the logo below to go to his website), but he's most well-known for his Hazardous Tales books. Here's an interview with the author after the release of the first book in the series.
Teachers! There's a teaching guide from the publisher (here's a preview):
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