Hercules Quick’s Big Bag of Tricks by Ursula Dubosarsky

Title: Hercules Quick’s Big Bag of Tricks

Author: Ursula Dubosarsky

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 2^nd May 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 224

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: A hilarious and charming story about a boy and his amphibious friend who do a series of odd jobs for their eccentric neighbours, from an Australian Children’s Laureate and the bestselling creators of The Terrible Plop.

Ursula Dubosarsky was the Australian Children’s Laureate 2020-2021

Hercules Quick wants to be a magnificent magician. He just needs a special box of magic tricks. But the box is expensive, and Hercules doesn’t have any money. Luckily, Hercules lives in a big apartment block with Aunt Alligator and his tadpole friend, Sylvie, and he has plenty of neighbours who are willing to pay for his help. Whether it’s babysitting for the Elks, spring-cleaning for Queen Claude, or helping Professor Calamari choose the perfect bow tie, no job is too odd for Hercules Quick!

Join the enterprising Hercules on his neighbourhood adventures as he discovers that sometimes the best magic of all is not a trick.

~*~

Hercules Quick lives with Aunt Alligator, and whilst they were out one day, he sees a big box of magic tricks – something he wants desperately to help him become a very powerful magician. So, Hercules sets about earning money, doing odd jobs for everyone in his building for ten cents with his tad pole friend, Sylvie. From babysitting Baby Elk, to doing all sorts of cleaning for Queen Claude or lending Professor Calamari an extra hand and finding the perfect bow tie – Hercules does it all with enthusiasm and confusion, all so he can get the box of magic tricks – but Hercules will find that the best magic may not be a trick at all.

I read the first Hercules Quick story as a quiz writer, and only read the first story – where he gets Sylvie and the magic around her starts. So, when the new edition with three stories in one arrived, I was very excited to see how it all resolved itself, as I knew there had to be more to the story than I had already seen. And the story continues well in The Magnificent Hercules Quick, and finally, How’s Tricks, Hercules Quick?, after the events of the first story, Ask Hercules Quick. I loved the ingenuity of Hercules – who wants to work for something he wants, and the way he goes about it, with Aunt Alligator’s support. The Hercules Quick stories are fun and inventive, with a focus on what it means to be part of a community.

I liked the effectiveness as well as some of the strangeness of these stories – the imaginative world that Hercules lives in where animals and humans all live in the same place and get a long was lots of fun, and I think the kind of world that younger readers would love to see come to life, as it focuses on how they might create imaginative play and who might populate their world in their stories. I also loved the sense of community – that everyone wanted to help each other, and everyone was willing to come together and work together when necessary, but they also still had those same family arguments and debates that we all have, making the story, the world, and the characters relatable to lots of readers. I also thought the feeling of a world where an octopus could live out of water was lots of fun – sure, in reality they can’t do that, but anyone can do anything in fiction as long as you make it believable, and I think Ursula did just that – everything made sense, and nothing seemed out of place – it is just how her world works and I don’t think that needed any further explanation as a reader.

Another thing I liked about this book was that some of the jobs weren’t always straightforward, such as spring cleaning for Queen Claude or painting on Mike and Herbert’s shells. Yet in the context of the story, it worked really well, because most of them were fun jobs – or jobs that had an element of fun or the unexpected to them. I loved seeing how this story – series of stories really, was finally resolved as well – showing that the beauty and magic is in those around you and the community that you are a part of. A lovely book and one that I hope younger readers will enjoy.