Holes

Holes
By Louis Sachar
(A children’s book that has been produced as a feature film)

This novel is a humorous tale about a boy named Stanley Yelnats (palindrome intended) and his family both past and present. Stanley is falsely accused and convicted of stealing and is sent off to a detention facility named Camp Green Lake (which is actually a dried up lake bed that resembles a desert) to do his time. Stanley’s family has had a run of bad luck for the past five generations due to a curse put on Stanley’s great-great-grandfather by a Madame Zeroni. At the camp, Stanley has to dig one hole everyday that measures five feet in every direction. They are supposedly digging holes to build character, but actually they are looking for buried treasure for the warden. At the camp, a fellow inmate and new found friend of Stanley’s, Hector Zeroni escapes into the desert without food or water. Stanley rescues him and nurses him back to health and unintentionally breaks the family curse (since Hector Zeroni is Madame Zeroni’s great-great-grandson). Now, with the curse broken, the Yelnat's luck is turned around and Stanley and Hector find the buried treasure at Camp Green Lake and Stanley’s conviction is overturned.

One of the things that I liked about this book was the way that it jumped back and forth from the present to the past and back again. It is so unique because it told two different stories at once: one about Stanley’s family and one about Camp Green Lake and his family’s connection to it. Another thing that I liked was how every detail (although at first seemingly unconnected) of the two stories fit together seamlessly. At first, the jumping back and forth of the two stories is hard to follow, but once you understand what the author is doing, you realize that the stories are all connected and you need to pay close attention to every detail.

My positive reaction to this book was influenced by my children. We all listened to it on audiotape and even though we are all different ages (9, 14, and 41) we all thought it was the best book that we had ever listened to. We were also pleasantly surprised at how closely the movie followed the book. Normally, movies based on books do not live up to our expectations.

I have read excerpts of Louis Sachar’s Sideways Stories from Wayside School to my students during library classes and it was always a big hit. Louis Sachar’s use of humor and wit in Holes is much better and I can see why he won the Newbery Award in 1999.

I learned from this book that characters in children’s literature can be portrayed as nice thoughtful ordinary everyday kids that are just down on their luck as well as give hope to others that if they just don’t give up, good things can happen in their lives.