I've enjoyed Hale's previous graphic-novel-format history books, including One Dead Spy, about the Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale, and The Underground Abductor, about Harriet Tubman. While the premise is a bit wacky - Hale, standing on the gallows where he'll die, regales the hangman and the British officer with tales from history, some far distant in time from his own life. It's a mix of humor and fact, and a very enjoyable way to learn history. When I heard that the next volume would be about Lafayette, I pre-ordered it at once, and this hardcover arrived today.

Many of the other books in the series take place long after the real Hale's death, so his knowledge of future events is somewhat mysterious - but this book jumps back to the Revolutionary War, even though Hale's path and Lafayette's never actually crossed. The book also dives right in to Lafayette's history, with only a few insertions of wisecracks and commentary from Hale, the provost, and the hangman (though the comments they do make are choice). The book covers a LOT of events in Lafayette's life, from early youth through his deeds in the Revolutionary War - and it also highlights many of the more frustrating and risky aspects of that war, when things did not go nearly as smoothly as the summary-for-school sometimes made it appear. (There's a brief insert covering the deeds of Benedict Arnold, too, from his heroic actions to his eventual treason - though it's sketched so quickly it almost feels like a flip-book!)

I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2018 What's In A Name release challenge. ***