The Heroic Adventure of Hercules Amsterdam [Hardcover]

Melissa Glenn Haber (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

Ten-year-old Hercules Amsterdam is a human boy no taller than a mouse standing on its hind legs. So when he discovers an amazing city just behind his bedroom wall, illuminated by a cheese sun and populated by friendly mice, he decides to stay there. But soon Hercules stumbles upon evidence of an enemy that lurks within the walls. When the mice refuse to believe his warnings, it's up to Hercules to save his friends from a terrifying, destructive force-a horde of bloodthirsty rats.

Like Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Hercules Amsterdam offers a rich landscape of the small-one that is touched with magic and guaranteed to inspire readers to press ears to walls and floorboards as they scout out miniature worlds of their own.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-Hercules Amsterdam is afraid of cats, dogs, and even other boys, because he is only three inches tall. His normal-sized parents have kept him safe at home for his first 10 years, but now they have decided to send him to school. On the day of registration, Hercules hides in a mouse hole in his wall and ends up in a hidden city. He makes friends with the mice, finds that he can speak and understand mouse-squeak, and is soon caught up in their daily routines. When Hercules discovers other ruined and deserted cities within the walls, the mice refuse to talk. Finally, the chief Steward of the scrolls tells him the awful truth. Rats periodically attack and destroy the mouse cities and the inhabitants must run for their lives. The boy realizes that the next attack is imminent and, with the help of the only mouse willing to confront the threat, he consults the fairy Kitty Joas for help. Her juminy juminy pills enable Hercules to venture outside the walls in normal human size and enlist the help of a girl who then joins him on the quest within the walls to keep the city safe forever. No explanation is given for the many fantastical imaginings in this story, from talking mice to conniving ants, or even how Hercules can disappear for over a year and not wonder if his parents are missing him. Readers who are willing to accept all that and more will find Hercules and his fellow adventurers to be interesting, multifaceted characters with a very unusual story to tell. Try this on dedicated fantasy fans.
Susan L. Rogers, Chestnut Hill Academy, PA
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Haber turns Stuart Little inside out for an inventive, tongue-in-cheek children's debut . . . [a] witty, well-told beneath-the-floorboards adventure. -- Kirkus, June 2003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Juvenile; 1 edition (June 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525471197
• ISBN-13: 978-0525471196
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,602,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant and exciting story, June 30, 2003

By 

Jennifer Garvey Berger (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heroic Adventure of Hercules Amsterdam (Hardcover)

I bought this book to read to my 6-year-old daughter before bed and was surprised to find that I was still reading it long after she was asleep. It is a magical story that creates an impossible-yet somehow completely believable-world where mice and rats and ants live in very different kinds of societies between the walls. The characters are compelling and unexpected, and the story line moves at a pace that will keep even the most reluctant reader begging for more (turns out not to be such a great before-bed story because of all of the pleas for "one more chapter!").

More than a brilliantly-told story about an imaginary world, though, Hercules Amsterdam is also a quiet commentary on our own society, on the moral choices people make each day (do we tell our children the truth about the world or keep them in blissful innocence? How should you respond to violence?), on what it means to stand up for ideals, and for the power of knowledge and friendship. The characters-from tiny, lost Hercules to the funny and off-beat Juna Loch and the loving mice-offer children models of how ordinary people can be heroic, about the ways creative and thoughtful creatures can triumph over the strong or cruel. Melissa Glenn Haber never pesters the readers with moralizing, but this story raises complex moral issues just the same. Parents, buy this book for your children, and, in addition to a wonderful story, you will have amazing things to talk about together. But know that this world in-between the walls is likely to call to you, too (especially if you've been captured by the Harry Potter books), so plan on setting aside some time to read Hercules Amsterdam yourself.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, July 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Heroic Adventure of Hercules Amsterdam (Hardcover)

This book is good for all ages--it's entertaining and imaginative. An excellent book which I highly recommend.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We are easily carried along with Hercules., July 7, 2004

By 

A Customer (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heroic Adventure of Hercules Amsterdam (Hardcover)

Hercules Amsterdam can be said to have, at best, a very peculiar lifestyle. At worst, he can be said to have a fairly unhappy existence. His problem is quite simple: he is only three inches tall. For Hercules, the world in which you and I live is full of dangers and terrors. There are dogs and cats that might eat him, stairs that he might fall down, and bikes that might flatten him. Even the breakfast table is a dangerous place, since it's full of large, often moving objects.

Hercules is relieved, therefore, when he discovers that there is another world just right for him, because it is built for creatures that are as small as he is. Purely by chance, he finds a city in the walls of the house in which his family lives that was built and is occupied by mice. Soon, Hercules is a much-loved member of the almost utopian mouse society and he thinks that his life will forever be good.

With a sometimes startling imagination, Melissa Glenn Haber has created a world in which creatures of the same size can understand one another and the bizarre is not questioned. At times, our credulity simply cannot stretch as far as it is asked to do. The relationship that exists between two very dissimilar animal species seems to be too unlikely. There is also the involvement of a good, yet at the same time, cruel fairy that complicates the story and solves problems that would otherwise be unsolvable. Nevertheless, on the whole, we are easily carried along with Hercules on his up and down adventures, both behind the walls of the house and in the human world.

Hercules soon discovers that his supposed ideal life is not as perfect as he thought it was. He finds himself simultaneously trying to save his mouse friends and deciding where he belongs in the world --- is he supposed to live behind the walls with the mice, or does he belong in the world of the humans?

--- Reviewed by Marya Jansen-Gruber