Helping Hercules: The Greek Myths as You've Never Heard them Before

by Francesca Simon, Tony Ross (Illustrator)

From the duo who brought the world Horrid Henry comes a new angle on Greek myths Here are the Greek myths as you've never heard them before. Susan is whisked back through time to Ancient Greece, and finds that helping Hercules clean the Augean stables is much, much worse than tidying her room. One hair-raising experience follows another as she goes down into the Underworld with Orpheus, just misses being turned to stone by Medusa, and rides on the winged horse Pegasus. This is both a fabulously funny story and a wonderful way to introduce children to eight of the best-known Greek myths. Susan meddles in each of the myths—taking a dim view of the gods and goddesses and heroes she encounters—but gets out in the nick of time, so the myths themselves remain unchanged and will be remembered vividly by their readers. To make it easy, there is even a guide to pronouncing Greek names.

Genres: Childrens

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Francesca Simon grew up in California and attended both Yale and Oxford Universities, where she specialised in Medieval Studies. How this prepared her to write children’s books she cannot imagine, but it did give her a thorough grounding in alliteration.

She then threw away a lucrative career as a medievalist and worked as a freelance journalist, writing for the Sunday Times, Guardian, Mail on Sunday, Telegraph, and Vogue (US). After her son Joshua was born in 1989, she started writing children’s books full time. One of the UK’s best-selling children’s writers, Francesca has published over 50 books, including the immensely popular HORRID HENRY series, which has now sold over twelve million copies.

Francesca won the Children’s Book of the Year in 2008 at the British Book Awards for Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman. HORRID HENRY is published in 24 countries and is also an animated CITV series. She lives in London with her husband, son, and Tibetan Spaniel, Shanti.

Reviews

[Willen P]

I've finished reading it for the third time, other two times I believe were in late 2010 and early 2015.

I'd give it a 3.5, due to the educational content (the Greek myths and legend characters dramatised in a comic way without being too off the track. I just wished it was a larger anthology with more characters, or at least if this had a sequel. I understand that Simon was very interested in Greek mythology, so kudos to her for writing this.

[Susanne Beyer]

Neat idea, Francesca-Simonly-well written, with some very funny dialogues.

[Frankie Spence]

Enjoyed by my children when they were 5, 7 and 10.

[Carol]

Susan is anything but helpful at home. So not surprisingly, her magic coin sends her on mythological adventures to help cure her of her stubborn laziness. Turns out she was the brains behind many of the greatest mythical adventures of all time!