From award-winning author Gary D. Schmidt, a warm and witty novel in the tradition of The Wednesday Wars, in which a seventh grader has to figure out how to fulfill a seemingly impossible school assignment-and learns about friendship, community, and himself along the way.
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.
| ISBN: | 9780358699255 |
| Publication date: | 5th June 2025 |
| Author: | Gary D Schmidt |
| Publisher: | Clarion Books an imprint of HarperCollins |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 352 pages |
| Genres: |
Children’s / Teenage fiction: Friendship stories PSHE: Self-Awareness, Self-Esteem and Wellbeing PSHE: Bereavement and Grief Children’s / Teenage personal and social topics: First / new experiences and growing up / coming of age Children’s / Teenage fiction: General, modern and contemporary fiction Traditional Tales |