By Nathan Hale
The true story of a Revolutionary War spy, told by the spy himself while he waits to be hanged.
Nathan Hale, a real spy for the American side in the Revolutionary War, is caught by the British and about to be executed. As he stands on the gallows he gets swallowed by a giant history book, and comes back knowing everything that will ever happen in American history, so he starts telling his own story to stall his hangman. What follows is the actual history of the early war, the battles, the daring boat crossings, the spying that got him caught, all narrated by a doomed man cracking jokes with the executioner right up to the end.
This is real history that reads like an adventure comic, and it hooks the child who thinks history class is where fun goes to die. The framing device, a condemned spy joking with his executioner, is funny and keeps the pages turning through what is actually a careful, accurate account of the Revolutionary War. Your child comes out knowing real names, real battles, real dates, having felt like they were reading something they were getting away with. And there are more than a dozen Hazardous Tales behind it.