11. Holes

Title: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Publisher: Laurel-Leaf Books
Copyright Date: 1998
Number of Pages:231
Reading Level: 9+
Genre: Adventure/Mystery

Summary
Stanley’s family has been cursed ever since his great-great-grandfather Elya Yelnats stole a pig from an old Egyptian woman name Madame Zeroni. Stanley doesn’t necessarily believe that his family has bad luck because of what his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather did but he never seems to have any kind of “good” luck on his side. One day while walking home after having to fish out his notebook from a toilet Stanley is hit in the head with a pair of sneakers. He takes them back to his dad because he happens to be working on a way to recycle old sneakers. It turned out that Stanley was arrested for stealing the shoes and sentence to go to a Camp Green Lake to pay for it. Stanley has to dig a hole every day while at the camp and it has to be five feet wide and five feet deep (the same size as his shovel). Although the work is hard and he knows that he’s not guilty Stanley starts to feel like he fits in better at Camp Green Lake than he did back home. Stanley becomes friends with Zero, another “camper,” and he tries to help Zero learn to read in return for help digging part of Stanely’s hole each day. The others don’t like to see Stanley sitting around while Zero digs his hole for them so contention starts to build. Zero ends up running away after hitting Mr. Pendanski with a shovel and everyone believes him to be dead. Stanley tries to steal the water truck to go looking for Zero but ends up driving it into a hole instead. Stanley heads out to find Zero and when he does, he finds Zero surviving on sploosh (100 year old, canned, spiced, peaches). The boys fight their way up a mountain in search of water and Stanley finds the strength to carry Zero half way up the steepest part. (This breaks the curse of course) They go back to camp and find an old suitcase in a hole Stanley had been digging in earlier which just so happens to have the name STANLEY YELNATS written on it. Turns out that the charges were dropped against Stanley, his dad discovered a way to reduce foot odor, there was a lot of money in bonds in the suitcase, Zero found his mother, and they lived happily ever after.

Recommendation
I would recommend this to kids who like mysteries, adventures, and the kind of kids who need to have multiple story lines going on at once.

Problems/Conflict
It’s a little frustrating how often Stanley is blamed for things that he doesn’t do.

My Reaction
There is so much to this book! Its so fun that I found myself almost jumping up and down waiting for it all to turn right. I like that everyone gets their just desserts at the end and that everything is resolved. The stories are so intertwined that it is spectacular when it all comes together. I have to say that I am more impressed with it now that I’ve read it again.