NHHT: Raid Of No Return-Book Review

Raid Of No Return is the 7th book in the Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series by Nathan Hale(not the famous spy, the author), it is a true story about WWII. The genre is history, Kids, and comedy.

   At the beginning of this series, it is 1776, and it is time for the spy Nathan Hale’s execution for treason against the King. He pronounces his final words and, all of a sudden, a giant history book pops up out of nowhere and eats him up then spits him out. After his small amount of time in the history book, he knows everything about all of American history, past, present, and future! Intrigued, the hangman and the provost beg him to tell them stories, which he does. It is 1941 and the U. S. Air Force bombers are recruited by legendary stunt pilot Jimmy Doolittle for a top secret mission. They must speak of it to no one or they will be kicked off the team. They travel to different areas in the U. S.(Florida, California, etc.), all of which are rainy messes(yes, ever Florida). They train for hours every day, until one day their planes are placed onto a ship. The ship takes them and their pilots into Asian waters, near the Japanese Empire. Doolittle explained to the pilots their mission. He simply says:

“We're gonna bomb Tokyo.”

And these were some of the various answers he received:

“I knew it!”

“Payback for Pearl Harbor!”

“Oh boy.”

“Quiet! None of these sailors know it yet!”

“What’s the plan?”

Later on, this would be known as the “Raid of no Return”.

    At this time, the Japanese government was teamed up with the German Nazis with a goal of eradicating all Jews and taking over the world. The U. S. and most other European countries were working together to stop them. The mission failed, and, well, it also succeeded too. The planes were attacked on their way towards China, but most survived. Of course, some of China had been taken over by the Japanese, but the plan was not to land there. Some went according to plan. Some didn’t. Some were taken in by kind Chinese outsiders or revolutionaries. And some were kidnapped by Japanese and were tortured in many ways: some were forced to sign documents admitting that they purposefully bombed schools to kill Japanese children(which was clearly a lie) and were placed in jail after an unfair trial, some were put to labor work, some were tortured for answers about the U. S.’s military secrets, and some were just simply killed. Thus there were many problems, while some were solved and some were not.

    There are barely any direct characters. The main characters are the U. S. military bombers, whose names aren't mentioned unless they are killed in action. Most of their main traits were determined, naïve, and they all looked the same because of their military haircuts and clothes. They were also all in their early 20s. The Axis of Evil were the Nazis and the Japanese government(a.k.a. the Japanazis). Their traits were also determined, cruel, and smart. They had good ideas about how to avoid or attack the American army.

    I liked this book because the way it is explained funny, enthusiastic, and, honestly, quite random. The author does a good job of telling us the story, but at the same time adding lots of fun jokes and dialogue. My favorite character is probably the Hangman. I give this book a rating of 81/2 stars out of 10 and for ages 7 or 8 and up.

    I highly recommend this series(you can read the books in any order, but to understand the plot 100%, you should probably read the 1st or 4th book first) for anyone who likes history as long as it's fun and interesting the way you learn it and maybe even people who don't necessarily like it, but don't mind it. I think people will like it because it's funny, educational, intriguing, interactive, interesting, and lots of other words that start with in-.