Author: Gary D. Schmidt
Genre: realistic fiction
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Rating:
.JPG)
Summary (provided by publisher): Herc Beal knows who he's named after—a mythical hero—but he's no superhero. He's the smallest kid in his class. So when his homeroom teacher at his new middle school gives him the assignment of duplicating the mythical Hercules's amazing feats in real life, he's skeptical. After all, there are no Nemean Lions on Cape Cod—and not a single Hydra in sight.
Missing his parents terribly and wishing his older brother wasn't working all the time, Herc figures out how to take his first steps along the road that the great Hercules himself once walked. Soon, new friends, human and animal, are helping him. And though his mythical role model performed his twelve labors by himself, Herc begins to see that he may not have to go it alone.
My opinion: If you know me, you know of my admiration for Gary D Schmidt. I count The Wednesday Wars and Okay For Now among my top ten favorites. So it is no small praise for me to say that this volume approaches them in excellence. In this book Schmidt has recaptured the magic of The Wednesday Wars - a run of the mill kid who is forced by a teacher to have encounters with classic literature and in the process learns about the world and himself. The lessons he learns from classics helps him decide the kind of person he is going to become, what it means to be brave and honorable. Along the way he begins to see the people around him in a new light and to accept change no matter how much it hurts. These are big ideas and the plot does not attempt to simplify the world. This is one kid finding his own ways forward, not the easy answer that fixes everything. This is a book you can reread and appreciate every time.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley
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