Above the Trenches (Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #12): A World War I Flying Ace Tale

Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #12

by Nathan Hale

In Above the Trenches, author-illustrator Nathan Hale takes to the skies with the flying aces of World War I to reveal another Hazardous Tale in American history in the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel series.
 
“Yippee! We’re going back to World War One!” said nobody ever—except maybe the Hangman.
 
When the Great War began in 1914, America had plans to stay out of it. But some young men were so eager to fight, they joined the French Foreign Legion. From deep in the mud and blood of the Western Front, these young volunteers looked to the sky and saw the future—the airplane.
 
The first American pilots to fight in World War One flew for the French military. France created a squadron of volunteer Americans called the Lafayette Escadrille (named after the great Marquis de Lafayette).
 
This book is about that volunteer How they got into the French military. How they learned to fly. How they fought—and died. And how these American pilots would go down in history with other legendary flying aces like the Red Baron and his Flying Circus.
 
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales are graphic novels that tell the thrilling, shocking, gruesome, and TRUE stories of American history. Read them all—if you dare!

Genres: Graphic Novels, History, Nonfiction, Middle Grade, War, World War I, Childrens

128 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 14, 2023

About the author

Nathan Hale is the New York Times best-selling author/illustrator of the Hazardous Tales series, as well as many picture books including Yellowbelly and Plum go to School, the Twelve Bots of Christmas and The Devil You Know.

He is the illustrator of the Eisner-nominated graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge and its sequel, Calamity Jack. He also illustrated Frankenstein: A Monstrous Parody, The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas, Animal House and many others.

(He is not the author of Extinction Earth or the other apocalyptic titles listed. That's a different Nathan Hale. If someone with "librarian" status would disambiguate those titles for me, I'd appreciate it.)

Learn more at www.spacestationnathan.blogspot.com

Reviews

[Diz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt this was more successful than one of the previous volumes that dealt with pilots in World War II. For his World War I stories, Nathan Hale uses animals rather than human figures. Because of this, he could exaggerate certain features of the characters to make them more distinguishable from each other. However, this is not as strong as his books that focus on single historical figures.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having covered the big picture politics and maneuvers of World War I in a previous volume, Nathan Hale returns to the era to follow a particular unit of fighter pilots, the Lafayette Escadrille, which was composed of Americans who chose to fight for France long before the U.S.A. officially entered the conflict.

This is a terrific series, even if this particular book is not one of its stronger entries. It's a little too diffuse as it tries to cover dozens of anecdotes about dozens of pilots over four years of war. It doesn't help that all the characters are presented as anthropomorphized animals, lessening the impact of the tragedy of war and making it hard for me at times to tell all the rabbits, roosters, and eagles apart.

Still, Hale keeps the educational material interesting by bringing tons of humor and energy to every page.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Believe this is the first direct sequel in this increasingly bizarre, funny, informative, childish and surprisingly gruesome book series (I mean, the last drawing in the entire story is of pilot Raoul Lufbery jumping to his death rather than being burned alive — see below), supporting the earlier Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood in which all characters are once again portrayed as animals (the British are bulldogs, the Germans are eagles, Russians are bears, French are roosters, etc. — certainly silly, but does help you keep the multiple armies and storylines straight).

This book focuses on the development of aerial warfare during the First World War (a topic I've been oddly fascinated by since childhood, when I used to make regular visits to the nearby Rhinebeck Aerodrome "living museum" in Upstate New York to watch their aerial reenactments, and spent way too many hours making plastic models of the various planes), and in particular, the history of the "Lafayette Escadrille" consisting of volunteer American pilots who flew for France long before the U.S. belatedly joined the war. And even though I thought I knew this topic fairly well, I still learned a lot, both in terms of people and technology. Things like:

• How Allied pilots trained on the non-flying "Penguin" trainer before they ever took to the air;

• How England's Louis Strange first mounted a drum-fed Lewis gun to the front of his "pusher" aircraft, and later to the upper wing of his Martinsyde biplane;

• How Anthony Fokker subsequently figured out how to synchronize true machine guns (vs. the frequently-jamming Lewis) with the propellers on his namesake Eindeckers, creating the first true "pursuit" (later "fighter") plane;

• How in fact the war's first aircraft were almost all monoplanes, with the more familiar biplanes only being introduced later in the war;

• The difference between blimps, zeppelins and observation balloons;

• How wireless radios were introduced and used for one-way communication from air to ground;

• How James Bach became the first U.S. prisoner of war when his plane crashed behind German lines (in Sept. 2015; he remained in various prison camps until war's end — and was in fact held so long that the Germans made him "Herr Direktor of the Amerikanischer-Kriegsgefangenen-Klub," or "American POWs Club");

• And just how horrific the death rate was for aviators, (who were not issued parachutes as it was believed they would then opt to abandon their airplanes rather than try to land them — the thinking being that replacement pilots were far more numerous than aircraft).

Indeed, on that later point, hardly any of the pilots mentioned here — including such famous names as Immelmann, von Richthofen (the "Red Baron"), Boelcke — survived; all three Germans died at the age of 25, while the above-mentioned Lufbery "lasted" to the relatively old age of 33. In fact, Strange was one of the few of these original flyers who survived the entire war, (and okay…so did famous American ace Eddie Rickenbacker, although largely because he didn't begin combat flying until March 1918 — only eight months before war's end).

Anyway - fascinating book (at least for me), if just totally weird…a solid recommend to any slightly off-kilter WWI buff.



"Whisky" and "Soda" were the Escadrille's pet lions (!!), while the "Bottle of Death" was a rare bottle of bourbon that by tradition could only be drunk by a pilot after downing an enemy plane. Lufbery ended up drinking most of it (16 shots); the empty bottle survives today at the Franco-American Museum, in Château de Blérancourt, France.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Might be the first Hazardous Tale that I was just meh about. Part of the trouble might be Hale's choice to draw the characters as animals - it's nearly impossible to tell anyone apart. And there are a ton of characters here, most of them destined for a quick death in a plane crash. Hard to really get attached or interested in anyone.

Hale also skips the larger thrust of World War I, so it's hard to understand what's really going on. These men are moving around France, flying planes in little sorties, often with little to no direction. And no one seems to care about anything beyond getting back in that deathtrap of a plane. I would have liked some reminders regarding how the war is going, and maybe even some basic information about planes? The Hazardous Tales gang seemed to cut in less than in other books. I think I missed their sidetracking of the narrative.

I'll still greedily snatch up anything in this series - it's generally stupendous. But Above the Trenches feels like a full book that could have been a few scenes in Hale's previous entry on World War I.

[Jeremiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

another great Nathan Hale all ya'll out there should read this good info for all ya'll

[Mary T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read every single one in this series. All well done. I think I enjoy the single main character ones better because they’re easier to follow. I kept getting these characters mixed up. But I learned a lot!

[Jonathan Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun read. All of these Hazardous Tales are so fun. I loved the first WWI book, this one was not as fun but still interesting and something I learned a lot from.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the Nathan Hale series as per usual!

[Arthur Rehner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge Nathan Hale fan an this book delivered humor and history in an appropriate way. I really liked this book. I recommend this series to young readers with a passion for history.

[Katie S ⋆˚✿ ࣪ ˖ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Nathan Hale's books so much, but this one was not giving... I first got introduced to his books because his niece was my childhood best friend (she moved away:() I don't know if it was just the topic, but it wasn't my favorite. It was basically all about different World War 1 aces and the Americans volunteering to fight for France, which was interesting to learn about, but got a little redundant. All this aside, super humorous and they are an entertaining way to learn about history! (My favorite has to be The Donner Dinner Party or Major Impossible!)

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned about Americans who volunteered for the French Foreign Legion before the US entered WWI. They became pilots, fought bravely and died defending France. The late entry of the US into both World Wars was pretty appalling. Graphic novels are challenging for me. I found these pictures to be somewhat confusing.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nathan Hale never disappoints! I always learn something from his books, and I know my fourth graders will love this one. However, I had a hard time following the story because of so many characters, which also meant I wasn’t as invested.

[tony dillard jr · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Eagles, Lions, Chickens, Beavers, Bunnies and Bears are back! Nathan Hale, both the cartoonist and American patriot return to Europe during the early days of the first World War to examine the war front not from the land or seas; but from the sky!

World War I saw its fair share of aces- pilots who scored a confirmed 5 kills or more! The famed Manfred von Richthofen, known amongst his fellow pilots on both sides of the war as the Red Baron, had a record 80 victories in the sky! The pilot in second place behind the Red Baron for confirmed kills had 75 and according to a chart in the back on this book over 60 pilots from France, Britain, Canada and Germany has at least 28 confirmed victories from the years of 1914-1919. The top ace for the United States was Eddie Rickenbacker with 26 aerial wins and he didn't even make the list!

Hale does his best to cover all sides of the battle in air. But in order to keep this historical graphic novel from covering too broad a picture of the war above the trenches, Hale tries to keep the focus on the volunteering American pilots who made up the French squadron called the LaFayette Escadrille, reverently named after another hero who has appeared in a previous volume of Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales.

Next to the first World War I volume, Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood, Above the Trenches is the most violent and deadliest recollection of them all. Hale makes an effort to warn readers that alcohol flows freely and cigarettes fill the air with smoke like exhaust from a Fokker DR1. (That's a war plane- not a German cuss word.) Yet there's no trigger warnings about the numerous pilots and their sighters and gunmen who die in horrific ways. Maybe this is just proof that our society is desensitized to violence but whoa unto us if we see an early 1900s Frenchman sipping wine while taking a drag...

Loved this book. Honestly, I didn't want it to end and I feel that considering how much time was spent on the formation of the LaFayette Escadrille compared to how quickly things wrapped up, this book should have been broken up into 2 parts. I guess technically, you could say this volume was part two. But really, we've yet to see America's official entrance into the Great War. Maybe the two Nathan Hale's have plans for a trilogy? I'd be okay with that.

[Darla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hungry for more WW I action after reading Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood, this book is just what you need. This new Nathan Hales's Hazardous Tale (NHHT) focuses solely on the WW I Flying Aces. Included is a table showing the top aces and there is not one American on there. Partly due to the lateness of our country joining in the war effort offically. The top ace on the chart is the world-famous Red Baron. You may know him as Snoopy's nemesis when he is flying is imaginary Sopwith Camel.

Here are some interesting bits I learned from this latest NHHT:
🛫There were pilots from the USA who were volunteering to fly for the Allies well before we joined the conflict.
🛫The American Ace with the most confirmed kills was Eddie Rickenbacker with a total of 26. The chart in the book stops at 28.
🛫The Escadrille unit featured in the book adopted two lion cubs named Whiskey and Soda. When the US formed their own unit, the lions had to go.
🛫The plane as a weapon of war evolved greatly throughout the war. Some interesting advances were timing the guns so they would not hit the front propellers and a luxury Russian plane with a lavatory on board. Remember this war began when planes were still babies.

A final note: this book does have a strong "Hazard Level" warning. There were many, many more pilots than planes. This imbalance tended to make the machine more important than the man. Sadly, "nearly every character in this book dies a horrible, painful death."

[Joseph R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Returning to World War I, Nathan Hale (the American Revolutionary patriot) tells the tales of the flying aces. The time was the infancy of flight (the Wright Brothers had flown at Kittyhawk little more than ten years before), so the techniques and technology were developed during the war. The story starts with American pilots joining the French Foreign Legion so they could fight. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was not interested in joining the war, so they had to go somewhere. Eventually, they convinced the French to switch them from the trenches to the newly-formed air units. Pilots' work initially was gathering intelligence or dropping hand-held bombs on the enemy. If planes shot at each other, the pilots used handguns. As the war dragged on, pilots and mechanics started mounting guns on the planes, eventually getting to front-mounted ones that would time their shots to go in between the propellers! The people and the technological developments are interesting and keep the story moving.

As in the previous World War I tale, Hale has the characters as anthropomorphic animals to keep the nationalities straight (Russians are bears, British are bulldogs, Germans are eagles, Americans are rabbits (since the Germans had eagles first), etc.). It works well and fits the comic-book style. As usual, the book ends with a bibliography and some other historic tidbits.

Recommended.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My main criticism is where did Nathan Hale get his information about the Prophet Elijah being the patron saint of aviators? I searched multiple sources, including Catholic Answers and Catholic.org, and he did not come up as a patron saint of aviators. Now, Catholic.org mentioned flying, but not aviators. Yet, Ewtn.co.uk mentioned he is the patron saint of the Carmelite Order and vehicle blessings. There appears to be two saints who are the patron saints of aviators, which are St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Joseph of Cupertino. For this book, it would have made more sense to use St. Therese of Lisieux, because soldiers saw a young nun comforting wounded soldiers during WWI, they began carrying her picture, and French pilots asked for her intession (Catholic Answers).

Verdict: I would have liked a more official bibliography, instead of the photograph. Also, parents, caregivers, and adults be warned there might be a play on words with the Dutch man whose last name is Fokker to a curse word, but I was pronouncing this name with a long "o" sound so it didn't make sense to me.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars: Read this at the request of my kids and because I’ve really enjoyed some of the other Hazardous Tales books. While I loved the other WWI book in this series, this one, focusing on the airplane’s impact on WWI, was not as good. It details a squad of Americans flying for France before America enters the war, and, honestly, it was too confusing. I couldn’t keep track of the characters or what was happening. I think the author did the best he could to condense a complicated story, but I was still lost a lot of the time.

This did help me get an idea of how dangerous it was to fly combat missions during this war and how it changed warfare forever.

Also didn’t appreciate the wordplays on the name of a certain airplane designer, though I think they mostly went over my kids’ heads.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nathan Hale takes readers to Europe in WWI to meet the Americans who volunteered with the French Foreign Legion's flyers before the US entered the war.

As this story unfolds readers also get to learn about developments in airplanes during this time period and how airplanes were used in warfare. The back of the book labels this book a "Hazard Level: Crimson" because almost all of the volunteers we meet and follow did not survive the war. Flying was a very risky business back then, let alone flying in a war. Hale honors the memory of some men who otherwise have disappeared to history.

Notes on content: 1 minor swear in a quote. No sexual content. Real deaths in the war are mentioned, no gruesome injuries depicted in illustrations.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only started reading but so far I am not that happy with animals representing nations. and why Americans are represented by rabbits? Considering that American volunteers are main characters in the story it would make much more sense to have them represented by eagles instead of assigning this bird to Germany. I understand the premise that it would be easier to have characters portrayed this way to make their nationalities more distinguished... while some nationalities would be drafted to different armies (for example Poles were conscripted to Russian, Prussian and Austro-Hungarian armies as their territory was partitioned by those powers at that time). Maybe I am too petty, we'll see as my reading progresses.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Americans who wanted to fight the Germans in WW1 long before we entered the war, and joined the French military in what became the French Foreign Legion. As animals. The first WW1 book he did was so brilliant, and I was so let down by this one. It seems very pro-war, and some of the humor didn't really match up age wise to the kids who read it in our community. And there was one plane decoration that I think could have been pushed back on more, and was surprised it wasn't. I was interested in the people, even though almost every one of them died during the book, but I was never invested. The weakest of the series for me.

[Machaia · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I see a Nathan Hale book, it is an automatic buy for me. He has a way of sharing history in a way that is both accurate and eminently readable. This is an excellent companion to Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood. The only reason it didn't get five stars is just because it is so hard to keep track of all of the different characters, but Hale really handled it about as well as anyone could be expected to do. The whole story is excellent, but it's worth reading for the rendering of the Elijah tale alone - it had me rolling with laughter.

[Lucas He · Rating 4 out of 5]

I realize that in the other books, the author lets the narrators sink in and connect with the characters, plot, and what's happening in the previous books. Now, (this is maybe subjective) I feel like the narrators are here to just make quirky comments and laugh a bit. The book (again, my opinion) would feel so much better like in Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood where the narrators related to the story. Overall, I feel like the story was very nice, filled with a lot of action, and a fun, educational experience for all.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a book that "flew high" on my book list as a favorite. This is because of how it described what airplanes looked like back then and also a very big part of WW1 that I have never heard of and I am quite shocked because the men were Americans and died for France in the early stage of flying and at this time it was very dangerous to fly. All and all those men really "fly this book high on my list"

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hale's latest in this wicked popular series focuses on the exciting -- and deadly -- days of aviation warfare during World War I. Several Americans wanted to fight before the US joined the war and the French Foreign Legion was happy for the help. Planes were still brand new and pilots had to serve as not just aviators, but mechanics, and gunners too. Includes an appearance by the Red Baron. This one will fly off the shelves.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

I struggled to get into this one. I didn’t remember the previous WWI installment or the animals he used to represent different nationalities. Lots of names, and a lot of context bits in the beginning made it hard to get into, and several jokes and tangents made the middle chaotic. I appreciated the story by the end, when it became clear the impact of this litany of pilots on warfare.

Other than a brief nod to Mata Hari, there are no women in this story.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series, it makes history accessible to my teenagers, it's entertaining and it's informative. My boys have read them over and over again since they were 9 or 10. So, when a new one comes out we are all excited with anticipation. Yet, we are never disappointed. It's great that we all read it, it becomes something to talk about.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of all of the Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales I have read, this has been my least favorite. There were too many people involved, and since he was using different animals to denote nationality, they all looked mostly alike. The stories were interesting, albeit mostly tragic, and I can totally see a bunch of young men with a lion deciding to feed it whisky. Some things never change.

[Francis S. Poesy · Rating 5 out of 5]

You really cannot go wrong with a NHHT book, and his latest doesn't disappoint. The historic characters and stories are very compelling; illustrated with a lot of action and written with a lot of heart. And the recurring characters, chime in with interesting questions, tidbits, and silliness from the Hangman (comic relief), that make this another easy and interesting read.

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Son's Review

Above the Trenches is a nonfiction graphic novel about flying in World War I. In it, Nathan Hale teaches about pilot rabbits who want to fight for France but are American. They decide to fly against Germany for France. I liked that they used animals for characters because I am tired of looking at drawings of people.

[Ezra · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a librarian at a library with a large collection for children, I probably see a Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales book at least four of the five days a week I'm there, and somehow it took me this long to pick one up. I've been wanting to learn more about the Flying Aces of WWI and figured this title would be a great place to start. Parts of it were a little goofy, but overall it was super informative and interesting - I learned a lot, and it inspired me to pick up a few more books on WWI at the library.