Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review Twelve-year-old Hercules Beal lives in Truro, Massachusetts, with his older brother, Achilles. More than a year after his parents died in a car crash, Herc enters a new school, where he meets Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer, his no-nonsense seventh-grade teacher for homeroom, social studies, and language arts. A recently retired Marine, Hupfer gives Herc a year-long mythology assignment: a 150-word essay on each of the 12 labors of Hercules as they connect with experiences in Herc's life. Herc initially feels overwhelmed by the enormity of the task, but in the end, he's taking charge of his actions and his interactions with others in his community. And while he already knew his brother's girlfriend Violet (aka the Vampire) and many of his neighbors, he sees them differently as the year progresses. The "12 labors" assignment lends an episodic structure to the story, told through Herc's first-person narrative and reflective essays, complete with his teacher's comments. Midway through the book, Herc's short, plain-spoken expression of grief goes straight to the heart. Fans of Schmidt's books will enjoy finding that a young character in The Wednesday Wars (2007) has a significant role in Herc's story, set several decades later. This memorable novel offers emotional honesty, wit, and a hard-won, heartening perspective.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

An ancient hero's feats and foibles echo through a modern middle schooler's life…as they do, for those who can see.Actually, 12-year-old Hercules can see better than most as he walks each morning through his Cape Cod neighborhood to a dune to watch the glorious sunrise and bid hello to his parents-killed a year and a half before in a traffic collision. What he doesn't see, at least at the outset, is how he's going to manage a school assignment that requires him to find personal parallels to each of the labors of (as he puts it) "Hercules the Myth." Schmidt assembles a strong, perceptive supporting cast, including a girlfriend; older brother Achilles' fiancee, probably, no, definitely a vampire; a "wicked cool dog"; and a legion of teachers led by the hard-nosed ex-Marine who dishes out that seemingly impossible assignment. The book covers an eventful year marked by the endless chores required to keep the family's garden nursery going and an equally relentless tide of emergencies, rescues, and terrifying encounters with feral cats and coyotes. Hercules' eye-rolling "Oh boy oh boy" becomes as much a running punchline as a caustic comment. It's all punctuated by moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity, emotionally enriched by quiet, incisive bonding, and chock-full of insights about how old stories continue to speak to human nature and character, showing that Schmidt remains at the top of his game. Main characters read White.At once an epic journey toward self-discovery and a wonderfully entertaining yarn. (Fiction. 9-13)

School Library Journal Starred Review (Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2023)

Gr 4–6— Every morning, Hercules Beal gets up to watch the sun rise over the ocean in "the most beautiful place on Earth," Truro, MA, on Cape Cod. The ritual is one the 12-year-old's few comforts since his parents' recent death in a car accident. His older brother Achilles is grieving, too, and has given up traveling the world writing for National Geographic to return home and run the family nursery business. The brothers' numbed coexistence gets a jolt when Hercules starts sixth grade at a new school with an ex-Marine for a teacher. Lt. Col. Daniel Hupfer's sensitivity—thinly veiled behind his steely exterior—leads him to assign Hercules a project to help the boy work through his grief. He must recreate and reflect on the 12 labors of his mythical namesake. The process helps Hercules realize that, like the classical hero, he has been to hell and back, but is still here and has something to live for. Herc's first-person narrative is sharp and funny, balancing the gravity of the issues he's struggling to overcome. Schmidt's use of run-on sentences may give grammar teachers fits but is very effective. The oceanfront setting is so powerfully visualized it's a character in itself and frequently drives the narrative. References to characters from Schmidt's previous books will please fans without distracting new readers. VERDICT This essential purchase will spark interest in classical mythology and encourage readers to reach out to others in times of stress. Like Hercules, they don't have to carry the sky by themselves.— Marybeth Kozikowski

Horn Book

It's been a pretty lousy year and a half since the Accident, and the Universe owes me one.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

An ancient hero's feats and foibles echo through a modern middle schooler's life…as they do, for those who can see.Actually, 12-year-old Hercules can see better than most as he walks each morning through his Cape Cod neighborhood to a dune to watch the glorious sunrise and bid hello to his parents-killed a year and a half before in a traffic collision. What he doesn't see, at least at the outset, is how he's going to manage a school assignment that requires him to find personal parallels to each of the labors of (as he puts it) "Hercules the Myth." Schmidt assembles a strong, perceptive supporting cast, including a girlfriend; older brother Achilles' fiancee, probably, no, definitely a vampire; a "wicked cool dog"; and a legion of teachers led by the hard-nosed ex-Marine who dishes out that seemingly impossible assignment. The book covers an eventful year marked by the endless chores required to keep the family's garden nursery going and an equally relentless tide of emergencies, rescues, and terrifying encounters with feral cats and coyotes. Hercules' eye-rolling "Oh boy oh boy" becomes as much a running punchline as a caustic comment. It's all punctuated by moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity, emotionally enriched by quiet, incisive bonding, and chock-full of insights about how old stories continue to speak to human nature and character, showing that Schmidt remains at the top of his game. Main characters read White.At once an epic journey toward self-discovery and a wonderfully entertaining yarn. (Fiction. 9-13)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Reeling from his parents’ sudden death in a car accident a year and a half ago, 12-year-old Hercules Beal lives with his older brother Achilles in Truro on Cape Cod, which Hercules calls “the most beautiful place on the planet.” Achilles has reluctantly given up a journalism career to oversee the family business, now with the assistance of his girlfriend (per Hercules, “the Vampire”). After Hercules starts at a new school, his flinty humanities teacher—recently retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer—tasks the middle schooler with re-creating his mythological namesake’s famed 12 labors. Initially skeptical about the classical mythology application project, Hercules slowly discovers occasions in his own life that loosely parallel the classical myths. By performing these tasks and growing close to people because of them, he develops a loving, vividly depicted community that presents opportunities for healing. Schmidt (Pay Attention, Carter Jones) employs his signature narrative style, balancing scenes of humor and affecting gravity through Hercules’s droll narration (“You have to admit, that was pretty brave”), which nimbly springs from labor to labor. It’s a moving hero’s journey that serves as a reflection on the durability of mythology and the necessity of community. Characters cue as white. Ages 8–12. (May)