Holes - Louis Sachar

Advantages: Beautifully written and crafted yarn
Disadvantages: Not a thing!

...hard, concrete-like surface. Digging holes is supposed to be a character building exercise. “If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy”, is the motto! Various dangers abound, including rattlesnakes and scorpions. But these are not the most dangerous perils, as the author graphically describes to us. “Being bitten by a scorpion or even a rattlesnake is not the worst thing ...
...Sometimes a camper will try to be bitten by a scorpion, or even a small rattlesnake. Then he will get to spend a day or two recovering in his tent, instead of having to dig a hole out on the lake. But you don't want to get bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard. That's the worst thing that can happen to you. You will die a slow and painful death. Always.” And the deadly yellow-spotted lizards like to live in the shade provided by the holes! ~ ~ ... Read review

Advantages: Wonderful, deceptively simple writing style, bags of humour.
Disadvantages: For adults? Maybe the neat ending. For children? Absolutely none!

...having fun, Stanley is digging holes at a juvenile correction centre. Camp Green Lake isn't fun. Digging holes that are precisely five feet wide, five feet long and five feet deep isn't fun either. Up at 4.30am, the boys at Green Lake must each dig such a hole, out in the heat of the desert, before he can return to camp and rest. It's thirsty, exhausting work. And Stanley does wonder what good it does in rehabilitating Green Lake's young inmates. ...
...I guess you could call Holes a great big tall story. It's certainly wrapped like that. Part comic delivery, part mystery story, part rumination on the justice system, part larger-than-life fable, it's a fabulous little book. According to the back cover The Independent on Sunday said, "There is not one false sentence." They were quite right. Louis Sachar has an admirable writing style, full of short sentences, accurate vocabulary and a wonderfully ... Read review

Advantages: Funny, easy to read, addictive with a clever plot twist
Disadvantages: I've finshed redaing it!

...in Texas which is where Holes is set. ~ The Plot ~ "Being bitten by a scorpion or even a rattlesnake is not the worst thing that can happen to you. You won't die. Usually. Sometimes a camper will try to be bitten by a scorpion, or even a small rattlesnake. Then he will get to spend a day or two recovering in his tent, instead of having to dig a hole out on the lake. But you don't want to get bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard. That's the worst ...
...when they had to dig holes day in day out under the hot sun. I became particularly fond of Stanley and the fact that the story of great-grandfather is being told along side the modern day one made it more exciting. I also became attached to Zero, Stanley's best friend at the camp. When he runs away it upset me and I wanted to carry on reading to find out what happened to him. It was like slotting a jigsaw puzzle together when reading the book. You ... Read review

Advantages: Very very good book
Disadvantages: Even better as a film; worse as a cash-in companion volume

...to the phenomenon that is Holes the wrong way around, in that he saw the film before he read the book. However the film was so good ~ a joyous telling of a brilliant story of circumstance, fate and odd segments of plot roped together to form a seemingly miraculous whole ~ that the book was a must~read. And although the film was never as successful as it should have been, the book was eventually everywhere ~ even in the original 100 in the BBC's best ...
...certain that any version of Holes can be very highly recommended. The film tie~in version of Holes, from Bloomsbury, features cover~art to match the cinema release, and eight pages of colour photographs from the film and film set. It bears the price £5.99 and the ISBN 0~7475~6366~7. It can be found cheaper on amazon's marketplace, but not by much, most people seem reluctant to pass this one on… * * * * * There is no sequel planned, and there can’t ... Read review

Advantages: A real imagination trip!It makes you believe in children's books again.
Disadvantages: If you don't like a few subplots in a story then you may get a little confused with 'Holes'.

...heard of Louis Sacher - Holes when my 12 year old brother came home from school a few weeks ago and raved on about this ‘wicked book’ and boy was I wowed! Once I had picked it up I didn’t let go until the very last word. Storyline The books main character is an overweight boy called Stanley Yelnats. He is sent to Camp Green Lake for stealing a pair of sneakers, though he claims they actually fell at his feet from out of the sky. He blames ...
...friends are forced to dig holes everyday. Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake because it seemed a better option than jail. Stanley quickly learns that life at Camp Greenlake means, rising before dawn to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet wide and getting along with the other boys (Zero, X-Ray, Armpit, Squid, Magnet, and Zigzag) in group D,. They all do what they are told from fear of the warden, a scary redhead, who paints her fingernails with ... Read review

Advantages: Great plot, Ideal for any age
Disadvantages: £ Was expensive £

...This is a fantastic follow-up to Holes by Louis Sachar. It tells the story of Armpit and X-Ray, two friends who were at the hole-digging camp in Holes together. It is told in 3rd person, and whilst being related to Holes, you wouldn't necessarily have to read Holes to understand it; it is a very stand alone book. Upon returning to Austin, Armpit set five goals fro himself. Five small steps. # Graduate High School # Get a Job # Save his money # Avoid situations that might turn violent # And lose the nickname Armpit In this wonderful, funny and deeply satisfying novel by master storyteller Louis Sachar, Armpit finds all his steps becoming much bigger than he had anticipated. When he gets mixed up with his old friend X-Ray in a ticket scam, things look set to unravel. But this is only the beginning of Armpit's troubles... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: anarchic, original and funny
Disadvantages: could, I suppose, get old quite quickly

...If you’re reading this and you’ve heard of Louis Sachar, chances are it’s because of the wonderful Holes, a multi-layered and beautiful tale of love and luck and redemption through families. But ask kids in the States, and to them Sachar is much more than that. He’s the author of two extremely popular series’ of children’s books, the Marvin Redpost series and this, the Wayside School Series. I should point out that this is actually the second book in the series but, crucially, I didn’t know that until after I’d finished it. So I’d hazard a guess at saying that while each book in the series appears to lead on from the last, the characters are so well drawn and the plot (or should I say plots?) so anarchic, that each volume can probably be read as a stand-alone book. And indeed I am right about this, because since starting this review... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful