Hercules and the Nine-headed Hydra

Zeus and his friends are back for another adventure in this latest Heroes in Training chapter book!

Since defeating the Titans, Zeus and his fellow Olympians have taken over Mount Olympus. Things are nearly back to normal…until a stranger named Hercules shows up, asking for help. He’s on the run from Eurythseus, King of Argon, who is after Hercules for egging his temple.

Before Zeus can help, Eurythseus himself appears. It turns out that Hercules has also been bragging that he is the ruler of Olympus, and Eurythseus intends to declare war on the Olympians’ new home.

Zeus’s friends come up with an idea—maybe Hercules could make up for egging Eurythseus’s temple. The Oracle Pythia reveals that in order to do this, Hercules must get a scale from a huge, nine-headed serpent—the Hydra. Will this be enough to please Eurythseus? Or is another battle on the horizon for the Olympians?

Joan Holub has authored and/or illustrated over 140 children’s books, including the Goddess Girls series, the Heroes in Training series, the New York Times bestselling picture book Mighty Dads (illustrated by James Dean), and Little Red Writing (illustrated by Melissa Sweet). She lives in North Carolina and is online at JoanHolub.com.

Suzanne Williams is a former elementary school librarian and the author of over seventy books for children, including the award-winning picture books Library Lil (illustrated by Steven Kellogg) and My Dog Never Says Please (illustrated by Tedd Arnold), and several chapter book and middle grade series. She also coauthors the Goddess Girls and Thunder Girls series with the fantastic Joan Holub. Visit her at Suzanne-Williams.com.

Craig Phillips has been creating cover art and drawings for books, comics, and magazines for nearly two decades. He is most at home working on tales about myth and magic. His latest book—Giants, Trolls, Witches, Beasts: Ten Tales from the Deep, Dark Woods—is a 200-page graphic novel about just that! It will be in stores in May 2017. When he is not drawing and writing, he likes to swim in the lakes and walk in the forests and mountains of New Zealand. Visit him at CraigPhillips.com.au.