- 7th grader Hercules is given an assignment to establish relevance between the 12 Labors of the mythical Hercules and his own modern life
- deep and difficult themes of grief, perseverance, and community
- convo: two students kiss each other once, two adults kiss each other once, a few mildly crude comments
- language:
- very frequent: stupid, freaking, jerkface
- other: crap, heck, jackass, dumbass, Good L*rd (1x), Good G*d (1x), geez, gee, butt
Type: young adult novel
Ages: 14+
Author: Gary D. Schmidt
Right at the start, we learn that our main character’s parents died in a car wreck before the story begins. He and his older brother now run the family business as they continue to grieve their loss. This is thematic throughout as Hercules has flashbacks and nightmares from the event. One particular memory is quite heavy and descriptive–a factor in my age suggestion above.
The business might be of special interest to nature loving readers. The brothers run a plant nursery–flowers, trees, and manure, oh my!
(Not to mention a few epic storm scenes.)
(Oh, and a hilarious scene revolving around the tree in his best friend’s yard.)
(And he walks a few minutes to the ocean shore every morning–what a location!)
If you’ve read Schmidt’s The Wednesday Wars (review here), you’ll get a similar vibe off this one (though I thought TWW was better executed). There’s quite a bit of silliness and hilarity that perfectly matches the ages of the kid characters, but there are also beautiful–seriously beautiful–times of deeper thought, strengthening of unusual relationships, and more.
Despite the humor and the unnecessary language, readers will experience meaningful examples of perseverance through difficult tasks, responsibility, cross-generational friendships (this was very sweet), and how smart a 7th grader can be when he puts his mind to it. Be ready for a chance of tears on occasion.
By the way, I listened to this one performed by Fred Berman. He did a fantastic job–I always knew who was speaking, and his inflection was on point. Just a note for fans of audiobooks. 🙂
And, for fun, here are the literary references made (I might have missed some):
- Sir Gawain
- Hercules (and various mythical creatures he interacts with)
- Gilgamesh
- Hatchet (Paulsen)
- Descartes
- Wizard of Oz
- Beowulf
- Dylan Thomas
- The Pearl
- Charles Anthon
- Of Mice and Men
Please let me know if you appreciated this review. Happy reading!