The Heroic Adventure of Hercules Amsterdam

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

Hercules is a ten-year-old who certainly doesn't live up to his weighty name: he's a human boy no taller than a mouse. His parents threaten to send him to a regular school, so he decides to run away, discovering a city full of mice behind his bedroom wall and falling in love with their friendly ways. All is not as peaceful as it seems in the mouse kingdom: when Hercules discovers a deadly secret, it's up to him to save his mouse friends.

This book combines all the best features of Stuart Little, Harry Potter, The Borrowers, Watership Down, and Tolkien ...with a bit of Honey I Shrunk the Kids. It's brilliant!

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

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.