A review by purplepenning
Major Impossible: A Grand Canyon Tale by Nathan Hale

4.0

This is the ninth book in Nathan Hale's graphic novel history series for middle graders, but the first I've read. I get why they're so popular — the entire premise is the kind of cartoon gallows humor that plays so well with kids and can make adults a little squeamish. And I mean "gallows humor" literally: Our narrator, Nathan Hale (the Revolutionary-era spy who had but one life to give for his country), is on the gallows, stalling his British executioner and hangman by telling them outrageous but true tales from history. The hangman acts as a co-narrator, calling out flashbacks, injecting humor, and requesting clarification throughout. Despite the humor, no punches are pulled about the sometimes dark and gruesome bits of history.

This particular tale is about Major John Wesley Powell (1834–1902), a geologist, Civil War soldier and engineer, and tenacious one-armed explorer who led the Colorado River Expedition through the Grand Canyon.

Content notes: childhood bullying, war (gruesome step-by-step amputation, mass causalities of battle, horrid conditions of prisoner of war camps and resultant psychological breakdown and institutionalization of a character), brief nudity, "butte" jokes, whiskey, off-screen death of expedition members, discussion of possible murders