My friend Cheryl Mathis and I have long shared fangirl status for books by Gary Schmidt so she let me know that he had a new book out. Back in September, I checked out The Labors of Hercules Beal from my library and saved it for my birthday treat for myself. The first time I laughed out loud (a rare happening) was on page 21 when military Lieutenant Colonel Hupfer, now turned teacher, “sat down behind Fort Desk.”
Having spent seven or eight years teaching junior high language arts, this was such a good fit for me. I started out appalled that Schmidt had “alot” in Hercules’s essay before I got another chuckle when Lt. Col. Hupfer calls that error a “barbarism” in his critique of the essay. That “barbarism” was a pet peeve for me. I had a sign in my classroom that read, “Alot is not aword.” When they saw it the first time, the kids would inevitably say, “Mrs. Butler, you need a space between ‘a’ and ‘word’.” I would say, “Exactly.” They would look back and forth from me to the sign for a minute or two and then say, “Oh!” I can truthfully say that was one correction I never again had to make on their papers.
My other reaction was wondering why in the world I try my hand at writing when there are people who can do it like Gary Schmidt? It’s like a kid wowing his grandparents with his rendition of “Chopsticks” when they have season tickets to the symphony to hear things like Dvorak’s New World Symphony. On the other hand, that kid still has fun and gets a bit of applause from his performance.
This book made several lists from people who like to guess the annual award winners from the American Library Association, including mine. While it missed those, it does prove my frequently made point that some of the best writers today have books listed for middle grade – to which I would add “and up.”