The Twelve Labours of Hercules

Re-tellings of Greek and Roman myths are in plentiful supply - but there will always be room for one more, if it is as strikingly executed, in word and illustration, as this one. Tracing Hercules' story from birth to death, via the twelve well known heroic labours, Riordan re-creates a world of superhuman strength and endeavour, where one highly-charged episode follows another and where fate would seem unrelenting in the demands and tasks it imposes. What one might call the moral landscape of the stories is magnificently captured in Balit's full colour illustrations, which, whether in literal or symbolic mode, are powerfully suggestive: see, for example, the vision of Hades she gives us to accompany Hercules' tussle with the frighteningly three-headed Cerberus. It really is very difficult to imagine a more seductive introduction for the young reader to these ancient, dynamic tales.