Tag: Nathan Hale

Caramel is on a roll reading books from the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series by Nathan Hale. So far he has read and reviewed One Dead Spy, Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood, The Underground Abductor, and Big Bad Ironclad. Today he talks to Sprinkles about the fifth book he read in the series: Donner Dinner Party, which was originally published in 2013 as the third book in the series. (See this page created by Fulton County Library System for the full chronological order of the books.)

Given the morbid nature of the historical events described (involving death and cannibalism), this review might not be appropriate for very young bunnies.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, it seems like it is once again time to talk about a Nathan Hale book.

Caramel: Yes! It is great that I can read another one of Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales.

S: I know you love these books! So tell me, what is this one about? 

C: It is about the people going to California in 1846.

S: Oh, I see, so this is about the Donner party, going west toward California and getting lost? 

C:Yes it is.

S: So the dinner party part is kind of poking fun at the rumors that some of them ended up eating others?

C: Yes, but it is not a very funny joke in terms of what it means. And it is not rumors; the Wikipedia article says they actually ate some of those who died because they were weaker, but they apparently also killed two Native American guides and ate them.

S: Caramel, that is awful!

C: Yep, and disturbing.

S: I mean, the other books you read in this series also had people dying, there were many wars and such, but this somehow feels a lot more morbid. 

C: Yep, it does. But apparently history can be pretty terrible. 

S: I can see that this book is making that quite clear. 

C: Yep, it certainly did for me.

S: So was reading this book a bit more challenging then? The story is pretty disturbing. 

C: Yeah, it was a little, but the scary parts are mainly on a couple pages, making them easy to skip.

S: And it seems like an important story, about how humans can get quite vicious and terrible when they are desperate. 

C: Yeah humans are sometimes very mean to each other, which is not a good thing.

S: I mean when you read Watership Down, we saw there that bunnies can also be cruel to one another, but at least we would never eat each other. We are vegetarian. 

C: And I guess I will have to remind you that Watership Down was fiction, Sprinkles. This book is about a real event!

S: I know I know. I was just trying to lighten up the mood, but it is pretty difficult. So let us talk about the book in general. I suppose you had heard of the Donner party before. Did you learn anything new while reading Donner Dinner Party? 

C: Yep, that sometimes the people in the past, and sometimes now, can be very mean to others.

S: So true. And so sad… Okay, I will now shift gears because this is getting a bit too sad. It seems these books are in color but always only a couple colors show up on each two-page spread. Is that correct? 

C: yep, this one had around 8 different colors total.

S: But only a couple of the colors showing up on one page, right?

C: Yep, at most maybe 2-3 colors on one page.

S: But it still seems to work well, right? 

C: Yes, it feels colorful at least.

S: After this I think there are still a few more books in this series. Are you interested?

C: Yeah, I can’t imagine there will be too many more cannibal stories in there.

S: I agree. Okay, so let us wrap this up then. What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

[We are back! The book bunnies were hit by a mysterious bug in the middle of October so had to take some time off. We are all finally feeling up for some reading and blogging again. Sorry for the disruption!]

Two weeks ago, Caramel reviewed the first book in the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series, recommended to the book bunnies by one of our friendly readers. This week he is talking to Sprinkles about the second book in the series, Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood, first published in 2014.

[We were hoping to go through these books in order, but Caramel happened to first read a three-book sampler which was made up of the first, fourth, and the fifth books! So the numbering of these posts is mainly about the order Caramel is reading them in. Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood, reviewed in today’s post, is the fourth ever book in the series, originally published in 2014.]

Sprinkles: So here we are, ready to talk about the second Nathan Hale book. So tell us a bit about the book Caramel.

Caramel: This is about World War One. Apparently it is one of the worst wars ever, in terms of how many people died.

S: I agree. It was also a very impactful event, leading to the fall of many powers and rise of others. But then, is the book a basic history of the war?

C: It is a comic book, like the first book. So it is history, but told in a different way. Many of the people are not people. I mean, they use different kinds of animals to represent all sorts of people. Like there are bird-faced soldiers, lion-faced people, and so on. I think it is called “anthropomorphized animals” because they are supposed to represent humans.

S: So it is kind of like Maus, the book Marshmallow reviewed about the Holocaust, where the humans were replaced by cats, mice, and pigs?

C: Yes! But I have to say that book is so much more depressing.

S: But are they consistent with the animal depictions? Like all dogs are some type of people?

C: Well, kind of. The Russians are bears, the British are bulldogs, the Germans are eagles, the Ottomans are otter, and the Americans are bunnies, like us!

S: That is interesting! I guess in a war with so many different groups involved, it kind of makes sense. It would be really hard to distinguish different nationalities by their uniforms for example.

C: I agree. I think it is clever.

S: I can see how you would like a book like this. You like facts, so you would of course like historical stuff.

C: Yes, and I really am curious about World War One. The book is full of facts! For example, I learned that the U.S. army did not have enough uniforms to go around at the time when the U.S. entered the war.

S: I did not know that! Interesting! So the book is really a story of the war, you say. Does it start at 1914 and end at 1918? Or does it go back and forward a bit so you get some context?

C: It goes from 1914 to 1918, mostly in the time order. It jumps from one battle to another though, and you learn lots of facts here and there, like I learned about the Unkillable Soldier.

S: I know you like your facts!

C: Yep.

S: So it is pure history?

C: Well, they do make up some dialogue. But they also sprinkle in some well-known quotes, like this one.

S: I see. So all in all, this was a good read for you?

C: Yes.

S: Do you want to read another Nathan Hale book or another book about the War?

C: Yes. Maybe I can take some time off from war stuff. The next Nathan Hale book sounds good though.

S: That is settled then. You read that and we talk about it next week.

C: Unless we all get sick again!

S: I hope we won’t. We should be immune by now.

C: Well, there are always other bugs.

S: You are right, but I do hope we will be able to continue with the blog. This was the first time in five years that we missed our scheduled posting times…

C: I know you are really bummed by that…

S: Yes. But I am glad we were able to start again today. So thank you for talking to me about your book!

C: You are welcome! I always like to talk about books!

S: So as we wrap up this review, what would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews! And it won’t be too long!

S: Hopefully…