School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-This hilarious graphic novel, a follow-up to I Am Pan!, follows the Greek messenger god from birth to modern times. Vignettes feature Hermes alongside Zeus, Apollo, Pan, Iynx, and Aesop, and other characters. As the book opens, Hermes is born to Zeus and Maia. The young god is colored completely golden, including his diaper, except for his blue eyes. The first word out of his mouth is "Gimme!" Hermes wants the world and everything in it. He tricks a turtle out of its shell and a ram out of its horns. Putting the two together, he invents the lyre, the first instrument, and sings the first song. He then lures his big brother Apollo's precious cows away. After being reprimanded by Zeus, Hermes is forced to grow up, literally, and become a man. Over time he starts a family, and when everyone else retires, he adapts his skills as a messenger for the digital age, delivering emails, photos, and more around the world. With distinct art and side-splitting dialogue, Gerstein's Greek mythology adaptation is unique and appealing. An author's note and bibliography are included. VERDICT A stellar addition for most collections, especially where I Am Pan! circulates well.-Marissa Lieberman, East Orange Public Library, NJ © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The versatile Gerstein (I Am Pan!) uses comic-style panel artwork to tell the life of the Greek messenger god Hermes. Golden Hermes is born with a head of curly hair and the cupidity of a newly minted movie star: "The world!... I love it! I want it all!" Apollo, his older brother, shows Hermes his herd of crumple-horned cows, and the prodigy is seized with envy. Switching their hooves back to front and luring them away is good fun until he's found out. "Were they meowing, led by a diapered infant with wings on his hat?" an old man replies when Apollo questions him. In later chapters, Hermes grows up (at the order of his father, Zeus, and in the space of a single page), marries and becomes a father, intervenes in the Olympian deities' love lives, and guides Aesop's storytelling career. The sequential artwork sparkles with energy and color, and Gerstein excels at capturing the expressions of the gods, from the grouchy Zeus to the odd, misshapen, many-eyed servant god Argus. In this raucous graphic novel fun fest, any educational value is purely coincidental. Ages 8-12. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.