Holes

Written by Louis Sachar

Random House Children's Books, 2000

Genre: children's fiction; mystery; adventure

Reading Level: ages 9-12

233 pages

Holes is an exciting book about fate, adventures, friendship, and curses. It's a book about a boy named Stanley Yelnats and the curse on his family because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. The book starts out with Stanley being sent to Camp Green Lake, a camp for boys who need discipline instead of sending them to jail. As Stanley quickly realizes the camp is not at all what he expected. There is no lake, it is all desert, miles and miles of desert. As Stanley takes the long bus ride to the camp he reflects on the curse upon his family because supposedly his great great grandfather had stolen a pig from a one legged gypsy and she had cursed his family. So Stanley is on his way to Camp Green Lake because a pair of shoes literally fell on him from the sky and apparently they had been stolen and were worth a lot of money, and Stanley was found guilty, thanks to his great great grandfather. So Stanley makes it to the lake and is introduced to Mr. Sir who tells him that he is to wake up everyday at 4:30 am and go out and dig a hole exactly 5 feet deep and 5 feet wide to build character. Then Stanley is introduced to his counselor Mr. Pandeski, or Mom, as the other campers call him. Mom introduces Stanley to the other boys in his group and they all have interesting nicknames; Squid, X-Ray, Magnet, Arm-Pit, Zig-Zag, and Zero. Stanley wakes the next morning to dig his first hole and simply, it wasn't easy, not at all. And by the time Stanley was done he was blistered and exhausted. During his digging excursion Sachar takes us back to the story of Stanley's great great grandfather, Elya Yelnats who was in love with a local village girl but her father wanted her to marry another man, a much older man, who offered a large pig in return for marriage to his daughter. So Elya went to Madame Zeroni the local Gypsey and asked for help. She tells him that if she takes one of the little piglets she has and everyday carries it up to the top of a mountain and have it drink water from the stream then it will be bigger than the other man's pig and he will win the girl, when he does he also must come back to Madame Zeroni and carry her up the mountain. So everyday Elya carries the pig to the top of the mountain, then came the day of the girl's 15th birthday when her husband would be chosen so Elya decides to take a bath instead of carry the pig up the mountain. After he bathes he goes to the girl's house to present the big. It weighs the same as the other man's pig and it's up to the girl to pick, but she doesn't know who to pick and surprised by her idiocy Elya gives her up willingly. Angry and heartbroken Elya jumps on a boat to America and forgets to carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain as he promised, but he's not worried. Elya goes to America and marries a young girl named Sarah. They had a hard life for they were very unlucky. They had a son who they named Stanley Yelnats, the first. Sachar then tells the reader about the yellow spotted lizard who's venom is extremely deadly. That night in the rec room of the camp Stanley receives his nickname, Caveman, and he feels a part of it all. As Stanley keeps digging the counselor tells him that if he finds anything interesting that he is to report it. Well one day, while digging one hole, Stanley comes across a little tube with the letters KB on it. Unfortunately he had promised X-Ray, the leader of the group that if he found something he would give it to him. So he does. X-Ray turns it in the next day and is given the day off. The rest of the boys are asked to move to the hole where X-Ray supposedly found the tube and they dug up all around it, for several days. Sachar introduces the reader to the Warden, who appears somewhat friendly to the boys or at least appreciative to the boys, though extremely impatient. It was obvious they were digging for something not just digging for character. After many more days of digging, and a couple incidents where Stanley is personally introduced to the warden, and Mr. Sir grows to hate him even more, Stanley and Zero develop a relationship. Zero wants to lean to read so Stanley agrees to teach him and Zero says that he'll dig half of Stanley's hole since he is so fast. One night, after teaching Zero Stanley starts thinking about the tube he found and it hits him that K.B might be Kissin Kate Barlow, who attacked his great grandfather and stole all his money, but luckily left him alive. So Sachar takes the reader back in time again to tell Kissin Kate's story. Basically Katherine was a school teacher in the small town of Green Lake that was right next to the biggest lake in Texas. She won prizes for her delicious peaches, and she was fond of the local onion seller, Sam, a black man and his donkey, Mary Lou. Sam would fix stuff for Katherine in the school house, and they soon fell in love. One night they were seen kissing which was unheard of for the time. The local town wealthy person, Trout, was furious and he put together a mob that burned down the school house and killed Sam. So Katherine decided to take revenge and became an outlaw. She went around stealing and killing people, kissing them on the cheek if she killed them. Kate moved back to Green Lake to live in a cabin and was approached one day by Trout and his wife Linda who wanted to know where she buried the money she stole they forced her to show them, and dig for it. Unfortunately she was bitten by a yellow spotted lizard and died, but not before she promised Trout that his children and his children's children would be digging in search for the next hundred years, and she wasn't far off. We jump back to the camp where Zero has just told Stanley that his real name is Hector Zeroni. One day the boys get sick of watching Zero dig Stanley's holes and they complain to the warden who shows up and she makes fun of Zero who finally snaps and runs away. A couple days later Stanley gets up the guts and goes out to find Zero, after walking for a long time, and already tired and thirsty, Stanley finds Zero under a part of an old boat name Mary Lou where luckily Zero was still alive and surviving on jars of a peach smelling substance he called sploosh. They decided they didn't want to go back to camp but instead decided to walk towards the mountains that Stanley hoped was the same mountains his great grandfather had found water on. After much struggle, blood, vomit, and Stanley carrying Zero most of the way they make it to the top and find water to drink and onions to eat. Zero reveals to Stanley that it was actually him that stole the famous tennis shoes, got nervous and threw them off a bridge where they landed on Stanley. Stanley forgives him of course and Stanley's luck changes and they decide to head back and dig for the treasure that the warden is searching for in the place where the KB tube was actually found. So they fill up and pack up water and onions and head out. They reach the camp, hide out until night, and start digging until they pull out a metal suitcase type box. Right as they pull it out the warden turns on a light thanks them for their help, but soon realizes the boys are surrounded by yellow spotted lizards. Stanley's lawyer shows up the next day and the boys are still in the hole but still alive, she tells them that Stanley is free to go and is outraged by what is going on. Stanley gives up and just steps out, they all look down and realize the case says Stanley Yelnats. The warden is shocked. The lawyer, and an officer take both Stanley and Zero out of the camp and back home. They open the case and inside is the fortune of Stanley's great grandfather. Zero is able to find his mom, and because Stanley, the great great grandson of Elya Yelnats, carried Zero, the great grandson of Madame Zeroni up the mountain to drink from the stream their luck was turned and Stanley's father discovered a cure for foot odor and became very very rich.

I would recommend this book to any one who enjoys a story of fate, a mystery, and story of luck and friendship.

The only conflict that could come from this book would seem to be to made a child believe that fate really exists and their choices don't matter.

Ever since this book came out i have always loved it. It is an easy read with an exciting plot. It is different from anything i've ever read. I like all the different story threads and how they all come together at the end. I especially loved the development of the non stereotypical characters.

My rating 5 out of 5