Middle Grade Monday and Audiobook Review: The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt

Image: HarperCollins Publishers

The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt. Unabridged audiobook, ~8 hours. Read by Fred Berman. Clarion Books, May, 2023. 

Happy Juneteenth and happy first Monday of summer break. Middle Grade Monday features The Labors of Hercules Beal by Gary D. Schmidt. Hercules Beal lives on Cape Cod with his much older brother, Achilles. Achilles returned home from Washington, D.C. to run the family nursery and to care for Herc when their parents were killed in a car crash a year earlier. Herc has to start seventh grade in a new school thanks to bussing redistricting and he's not too happy about that. He's especially leery of his language arts teacher, retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer. Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer has assigned a long-term project based on world mythology and Hercules' project is to recreate the twelve labors of his namesake and write a reflection for each.

This first-person narrative grabbed me from the start. Hercules is such an endearing character. He hikes up the dune each morning to watch the sun rise and to say hello to his parents; is convinced that Achilles' girlfriend, Viola is a vampire, and is maybe, just maybe developing a crush on his best friend. This hero's journey is filled with wonderful supporting characters. It is often laugh-out-loud funny, but there will be tears as well. Herc's reflections and Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer's scathing responses are especially funny.

Gary D. Schmidt is a favorite of mine, but I can rarely get students to try his books. He's definitely a reader's writer. His books beg to be taught for they have depth and his writing is lyrical and lovely. ELA teachers can have a field day teaching literary devices. He is prone to using repetition and he seems to poke fun at himself through Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer's criticism of Hercules' reflections.

New-to-me narrator Fred Berman doesn't sound particularly youthful, but his soft, thoughtful delivery reflected Hercules perfectly. I think this might have been a book I should've read with my eyes because Herc's reflections seemed to have crossouts and such that probably added visual humor. Still Mr. Berman did a nice job with those areas as well.