Holes

Title:   Holes           

Author: Louis Sachar                 Copyright Date: 2000                       

Genre:  Fantasy                         Pages of Book: 272 Pages

Publisher: Yearling                   Reading Level: 6^th to 8^th Grade

Summary: Stanley Yelnats is an overweight kid that is picked on a lot by kids at school. His dad is an inventor and his family doesn’t have a lot of money. One day he is walking home from school when a pair of shoes fell on top of his head. He took them home because after all his dad was working on a way to recycle shoes. He was arrested later and sent to court because apparently they were stolen shoes that fell on his head and no one believed him. Stanley is sent to Camp Greenlake where he meets boys with all sorts of weird nicknames. They give him the nickname of armpit. Everyday they are to dig a hole 5x5x5. If they find interesting they are supposed to tell the warden of the camp. The leaders treat the boys badly and Stanley is just trying to stay on everyone good side. When Stanley finds something when he is digging he gives it to X-ray because he is the leader and told him to give him anything that he found. This causes problems because the warden then makes them dig in the X-rays hole looking for more things. Afterward things go back to normal and Stanley starts teaching Zero to read. In return Zero digs part of Stanley’s hole. One day he gets in trouble for taking the blame of stealing Mr. Pendanski’s sunflower seeds. Mr. Pendanski takes Stanley to the warden. When they get there the warden is mad at Mr. Pendanski and puts venom in his face. Now Mr. Pendanski has it out for Stanley and doesn’t give him water. One day Mr. Pendanski pushes Zero over the edge and he hits Mr. Pendanski over the head with his shovel and heads out across the dessert. The next few days Stanely doesn’t see Zero and he is worried about him. That dad while Mr. Pendanski was giving the boys water he jumped into the water truck and took off. He got stuck in a hole and had to abandon it and he set off throught the dessert to find Zero. Stanley finds Zero under an old washed up boat. They try to head for the mountain but they have nothing to drink. They finally make it up to the top and find water and onions up there. They finally decide they have to head back to the camp. They do but they wait until night and go dig in Stanelys hole to find what the warden has been looking for. They get caught but when the warden tries to get them she sees that they are in with lizards nest. Because the lizards didn’t like onions they didn’t’ attack the boys. Then Stanelys lawyer shows up and saves everyone from the awful Camp Greenlake.

Reaction: I really liked this book, I had never seen the movies so I had no idea what to expect. I enjoyed reading it. It has several elements and I love that in the end everything even, unsignificant things all came together.

Problem: Stanley is stuck at Camp Greenlake. He has a curse put on him thanks to his pig stealing great great grandfather. Zero and Stanely have to find a way to survive the dessert.

Recommendation: I loved this book however I think I would need to read it a couple times to completely understand everything. I would suggest this book to those who are 6^th grade and up though even then I think 6^th might be a little young for them to follow all of these stories in Holes.