Language: G (3 swears, 0 ‘f’); Mature Content: G; Violence: G
BUYING ADVISORY: MS - ADVISABLE
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
7th grader Hercules Beal has just changed to a local magnet school - with the meanest former drill sergeant Language Arts teacher ever. Hupfer has assigned each student a personal project - Hercules has to find analogies for the 12 labors of Hercules in his everyday life and perform the labors. When a bad winter storm ruins the school, Hercules and his brother offer their family farm as a temporary campus. While he now can commute to school in a couple of minutes, he has more work than ever - since their parents died 18 months earlier, Hercules and his older brother Achilles have been working hard to keep the farm going. In Hercules case, it will literally take a village for him to survive this school year.
Schmidt’s book is a tender look at processing grief and allowing others into our lives to help. I do not think it will find a wide audience on its own - but it is well worth the reading for those students who do persevere. Might be a good classroom novel choice.
Cindy Mitchell, Library Teacher, MLS
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