Gary D. Schmidt is a master at writing stories that are a celebration of the genius of the ordinary middle school boy. In them, he seems to see all of the possibilities and is also realistic about all of the realities of their age and place in culture. Instead of dressing his heroes in capes, he lets us see them in their blue jeans with potting soil under their fingernails, reminding us that all of us can be the heroes of our stories.
I was introduced to The Wednesday Wars by one of my book club teens a number of years ago. At her urging, and with low expectations, I picked up that modern book set in the 1960s. I would have passed over the suggestion entirely had she not insisted that the Shakespeare contained therein was brilliantly applied. She was quite right. I read The Wednesday Wars and loved it. So much so that I was willing to follow her suggestion to read the sequel, Okay For Now, even though she warned me that it centered on domestic violence. It does. But she was right again. The Audubon-loving Doug Swieteck was a sympathetic character who stole my heart and made me realize that I was starting to fall in love with Schmidt’s writing. At the time of writing this, I have not read the third book in the series, Just Like That, but plan to once I have finished processing this one.
When Diane read The Wednesday Wars this year, she was surprised by how much she liked the book. In fact, she decided to read Pay Attention, Carter Jones, just to see if he could impress her again. He did. Her review of it made me want to run out and read it. So, I did. And, I loved it. I really did. (I’m not lying. Really, I didn’t make this up.) 😉 That story is set forty years in the future (early 2000s). One of the things I loved most was that the principal in that book happens to be Doug Swieteck’s wife, and that made me ridiculously happy. It was an ingenious way of telling us that Doug was okay and, in fact, happy. And, it didn’t “take advantage of the sequel” to do it.
So, when I discovered that Gary D. Schmidt had written another modern book featuring the grown-up versions of Danny Hupfer and Mai Thi, I was curious and eager to give it a try. My kids have asked me which of his is my favorite. It might be this one. This one was a delight to read, and an invitation to sob all at the same time. I laughed, and I cried, and I enjoyed every bit of it. This book is hard, but not like Okay For Now. This book is creative. And, it is brilliant. There. I said it. I think that Gary D. Schmidt is brilliant. (And, I am not lying.)
Side note: I did try to read What Came From the Stars. I did not love it and did not finish it. It’s okay. Schmidt doesn’t have to be brilliant at everything. I am just so happy that he is brilliant at this.
In The Labors of Hercules Beal, the title character is a seventh-grade boy living on Cape Cod with his older brother Achilles. The Beal boys live on a generational garden farm built by their great-great father and great-great uncle, the original Beal brothers. Less than a year ago, their parents were killed in a car accident when a drunk semi-driver veered into the wrong lane, killing their mother instantly. Their father lived long enough to make it to the hospital and just long enough to ask the boys what happened to their mother. Achilles, a writer for National Geographic, left his globetrotting life to come home and take care of Hercules and to sustain the legacy greenhouse.
Shortly after the story opens, Achilles tells us that his brother has decided to send Hercules to a new school this fall, The Cape Cod Academy for Environmental Sciences. Hercules is none too thrilled with this arrangement as it means leaving his friends and routines. The Cape Cod Academy for Environmental Sciences, however, is closer to their home and Hercules can walk to school instead of needing to be transported. Perhaps Achilles is also trying to give Hercules a new school to go with his new life.
At the Cape Cod Academy for Environmental Sciences, Hercules not only makes new friends, but he is also assigned a teacher who becomes a powerful mentor in his life. Readers of The Wednesday Wars will be very surprised to learn that not-very-special Danny Hupfer is now a retired marine who has a special ability to care about scrawny little middle school kids and get extraordinary things out of them. Lt. Colonel Hupfer is brusque and unyielding but he is also thoughtful and caring. As Hercules’s homeroom teacher, he is the teacher with the most contact with this overwhelmed and grieving boy. And, as the humanities instructor, he is wildly creative in how he makes mythology meaningful for his class. At the beginning of the year he assigns to each of his students a unique year-long project that allows the student to connect with the material in a way that is consistent with their gifts and talents. One artistic student draws over one hundred maps from the myths. Another interviews every set of twins on Cape Cod. Hercules is to “make, do, perform, execute, accomplish” each of the twelve labors of Hercules.
In the same style as The Wednesday Wars, Okay for Now, and Pay Attention, Carter Jones, the story has one overarching theme that is explored over the twelve months of the year starting in the late summer and ending after the school year. Typical of Gary D. Schmidt, the scrawny middle school boy is just an ordinary boy with real-life kinds of struggles who is shaped and formed by one interesting idea or force (Shakespeare, Audubon, Cricket, etc.) and a community of adults who range in their capacity to actively care about our character. But, in each case, one or two adults take a significant interest in our boy, and they help him mature into something really good. Of all of the books, this one has the strongest support system of adults, probably because our main character is grieving the loss of both parents. Also typical of Schmidt, our boy has some ordinary friends who display extraordinary loyalty and support. And, hallmark of Schmidt, the story and the surprises are never over until the story is over. So, buckle your seat belt. It will always be a wild ride!
So many of these Gary D. Schmidt books fit together like pieces of a puzzle. That said, they are not series. They do not depend upon each other. Enter at will and hop around wherever you like. I, personally, am glad to have read the 1960s books first so I could recognize and appreciate the adults in the 2000s books. But, wherever you start, you will be fine. And, if certain topics are heavier for your reader than others, you can skip any that would not be a good fit.
Please see our cautionary reviews of Okay for Now, Orbiting Jupiter, and Just Like That .