Twelve-year-old Hercules Beale lives in the most beautiful place on earth: Truro, Massachusetts. He works and lives on the Beal Brothers Nursery and is about to start the year in a new school.

His parents were killed in a car crash one year before, so Hercules’s adult brother Achilles returned from the job he loved in D.C. to run the nursery and be Hercules’s guardian.

Hercules’s new homeroom is headed by Lt. Col. Hupfer, the strictest teacher alive. He assigns each student a nearly impossible assignment based on classical Greek literature. To Hercules Beale: he must recreate the 12 labors of the mythological Hercules, then reflect on how they relate to his own life.

I absolutely adored this book. It balances lingering grief and humor so well. Hercules has a great voice, and you can’t help but root for this sarcastic little twelve-year-old. He has more grit and motivation than I have at twenty-two!

Is the plot a little convenient to fit each of the labors? Of course—I mean, how else could you really have all twelve labors as a parallel to this kid’s life? It’s a tall order plot. But somehow, this is written so well that it doesn’t matter. It works. These are still real life circumstances that didn’t feel out of the blue in a fabricated way, so I am very pleased with this plot.

I loved seeing the teachers’ hearts throughout this story as well. They are being the best people they can be for their students, and that is such a special kind of love. (Do I think Hupfer’s grading shouldn’t have been so tough for menial reasons in Hercules’s writing? Yes, because I think that would be discouraging for middle schoolers to read. But overall, that is a small thing. Hupfer is a great character overall.)

I was also captivated by how well the brothers’ relationship is written. “I love you” is shown through actions much more than words. It is a complicated relationship, these boys who can’t help but resent and frustrate and love and need and cherish each other. Their relationship is so well done because we know in everything they say and do how terrified they each are to lose the other, because they’re the only family they have left. And that fact is never said in words. Never narrated. But goodness gracious, it’s so clear.

This is my favorite middle grade read in a long while. It’s easily digestible, beautiful, has characters you will love and connect with, and misadventure after misadventure that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. I rarely see such a lovely balance of heavy topics like grief and survivor’s guilt and yet capturing the humorous aspects of what it means to be twelve years old. I cannot recommend this book enough.

The Labors of Hercules Beal - Likewise Book Reviews

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