This interview originally aired on In the Moment on SDPB Radio.
In "The Labors of Hercules Beal," a middle school student gets a unique assignment from a unique teacher. Hercules Beal must recreate the trials of his mythic namesake, and he learns a thing or two about himself along the way.
Author Gary D. Schmidt stops by the SDPB studio ahead of the Young Readers Festival of Books.
He discusses how he came up with the crazy plot points of the novel. Plus, he also brings some meditations on children's literature as a whole.