The Labors of Hercules Beal

From award-winning author Gary D. Schmidt, a warm and witty novel in the tradition ofThe Wednesday Wars,in which a seventh grader has to figure out how to fulfill a seemingly impossible school assignment-and learns about friendship, community, and himself along the way.

Herc Beal knows who he's named after-a mythical hero-but he's no superhero. He's the smallest kid in his class. So when his homeroom teacher at his new middle school gives him the assignment of duplicating the mythical Hercul...