Holes by Louis Sachar

Sachar, Louis. Holes.

Bloomsbury; 1998,

ISBN: 0439253225.

Reader’s Annotation

When Stanley goes to a “camp” for troubled boys after being falsely accused of a theft, he stumbles into a story that began 100 years before, and includes murder, a curse, revenge and buried treasure.

Plot Summary

When the judge gives Stanley the choice of going to jail or to going to Camp Green Lake after being falsely accused of stealing a valuable pair of celebrity tennis shoes, Stanley’s chooses Camp Green Lake since he’s “never been to camp”.  He quickly discovers the bitter truth:  Camp Green Lake is neither green, nor a lake!  Poisonous lizards are plentiful, and water is non-existent (they say it hasn’t rained there in a hundred years).  Stanley believes that his bad luck is caused by his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather”, and he’s right, he just doesn’t yet know how right he is.  The warden is a venomous woman who is looking for something.  So, there in the desert-like, dry lake bed, each boy is forced to dig a hole every day—five feet deep and five feet wide. They are under strict instructions that anything interesting that they find belongs to the warden.  As time goes on, Stanley start doing a little “digging” of his own, and he starts to uncover the truth behind the warden’s treasure hunt, his own family curse, and the legend of the Kissing Kate Barlow, an outlaw from the old west.

 

Critical Evaluation

The story lines in Holes are so cleverly written that you hardly realize they are interwoven until well into the story.  Stanley is the likeable, teenage “everyman”, and you feel sorry for him and his bad luck.  Through the book, Sachar tells two stories simultaneously—the present day Camp Green Lake, and the lake and town from a century before.  The past story tells how Stanley’s ancestor came to be cursed in the first place.  In fact, the historic storyline describes the background of many of the present-day characters.  Holes was made into a movie, but in the book, the reader can get a much better understanding for how the characters and the characters’ ancestors are all interrelated.  When Stanley teams up with small loner of a boy, named Zero, they find that they have much more in common than they can imagine!

Information about the Author

Louis Sachar is a prolific author mainly of children’s books including There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom and the Marvin Repost series.  Sachar was born in 1954 in New York, then grew up mostly in California.  He attended Antioch College in Ohio, but returned to California after the death of his father, and he continued his education at U.C. Berkeley.  Sachar worked briefly as an aide in an elementary school during his Berkeley years, and that is what wooed him into writing for children.

Genre

Realistic Fiction

Mystery

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk  Ideas

1. How does what you do now affect what will happen 100 years from now?
2. Do you believe in curses?

Reading level/Interest age

Grade 6-Adult

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

None

Why I included this work

I had heard about Holes from my children, and loved it.  Sachar has won countless honors and awards for Holes.  Among the most notable are:

WINNER 1999 - Newbery Medal Winner

WINNER 1999 - ALA Notable Children's Book
WINNER 1999 - ALA Best Books for Young Adults
WINNER 1999 - ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers

Great Quote from the Book:

“A lot of people don't believe in curses. A lot of people don't believe in yellow-spotted lizards either, but if one bites you, it doesn't make a difference whether you believe in it or not.”