My Hero Hercules

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

In ancient times, a young boy named Jason scorns the meek ways of his
scholarly father in favor of the exciting stories about the life of his
favorite warrior-hero, Hercules. One night, Jason’s father dies
horribly in an accidental fire. Alone in the world, Jason cries out to
Hercules to make him strong like the hero. High on Mount Olympus,
Hercules hears young Jason’s plea and decides to grant his wish. With
his godly powers, Hercules and Jason relive some of the god’s greatest
adventures. They fight a wild boar, capture Poseidon’s white bull,
kill the Hydra, and even wrestle and defeat Death itself. Although Jason
likes watching Hercules be brave and strong, he is dismayed to find that
his hero is often very quick tempered and sometimes cruel. For his part,
Hercules cannot understand why Jason can’t be more obedient like his
own son, Lysander, whom Hercules himself accidentally killed long ago in
a fit of madness.

As the above synopsis indicates, this portrait of Hercules is not the
“big, lovable,” all-American stereotype many modern readers may be
used to seeing. In her introduction, Galloway mentions that she based
her version of Hercules on classic sources by Apollodorus and Ovid, but,
to make the story more meaningful to young readers, she added the new
character of Jason. The result is an authentic but accessible
introduction to the complex and often cruel world of Greek mythology.
Highly recommended.