...
But when my wee lass practically implored me to read a book called “Holes” by an American author called Louis Sachar, then I knew before I even picked it up that it was going to be something special.
You see, she wouldn’t be in the habit of asking her old dad to read ... Read review
I'm not going to run away," Stanley said. "Good thinking, " said Mr Sir. "Nobody runs away ... more
from here. We don't need a fence. Know why? Because we've got the only water for a hundred miles. You want to run away? You'll be buzzard food in three days." Stanley could see some kids dressed in orange and carrying shovels dragging themselves towards the tents. "You thirsty?" asked Mr Sir. "Yes, Mr Sir," Stanley said gratefully. "Well, you better get used to it. You're going to be thirsty for the next eighteen months."If you are looking for a truly remarkable novel, something to get your teeth into, something to make you think, and something to make you feel that you have just touched real class, then look no further than Louis Sachar's extraordinary, award-winning novelHoles.Camp Greenlake is a place for bad boys, where the belief is: "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." When Stanley Yelnats, accused and found guilty of a crime he did not commit, is sent to Camp Greenlake he really doesn't think it can be so bad. Stanley and his family try to pretend that he is just going away to camp like the rich kids do, and he promises to write to them every day. But the harsh realities of the camp, and the evil Warden with her lizard-venom impregnated fingernails with her own reasons for making the boys in her charge dig so many holes, sometimes make dying seem like a great idea. When Stanley leaves the camp to go in search of his friend Zero, their journey towards freedom becomes a battle with hunger, thirst and heat in the shadow of Big Thumb--a mountain so entwined in Stanley's own family history that he knows if they can reach it they will somehow find salvation.A complex story, riddled with the harsh imagery and barren despair,Holesis a perceptive and intricate homage to family and friendship which never shies away from the harshest of realities yet injects the story of a seemingly hopeless boy with a sly, sideways humour that crackles against the backdrop of the arid wastelands of the desert. An absolute must for anyone, young or old, who relishes an intelligent, courageous and dynamic read. (Age 11 and over) --Susan Harrison
Postage & Packaging:Free! Availability:Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
I'm not going to run away," Stanley said. "Good thinking, " said Mr Sir. "Nobody runs away ... more
from here. We don't need a fence. Know why? Because we've got the only water for a hundred miles. You want to run away? You'll be buzzard food in three days." Stanley could see some kids dressed in orange and carrying shovels dragging themselves towards the tents. "You thirsty?" asked Mr Sir. "Yes, Mr Sir," Stanley said gratefully. "Well, you better get used to it. You're going to be thirsty for the next eighteen months."If you are looking for a truly remarkable novel, something to get your teeth into, something to make you think, and something to make you feel that you have just touched real class, then look no further than Louis Sachar's extraordinary, award-winning novelHoles.Camp Greenlake is a place for bad boys, where the belief is: "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." When Stanley Yelnats, accused and found guilty of a crime he did not commit, is sent to Camp Greenlake he really doesn't think it can be so bad. Stanley and his family try to pretend that he is just going away to camp like the rich kids do, and he promises to write to them every day. But the harsh realities of the camp, and the evil Warden with her lizard-venom impregnated fingernails with her own reasons for making the boys in her charge dig so many holes, sometimes make dying seem like a great idea. When Stanley leaves the camp to go in search of his friend Zero, their journey towards freedom becomes a battle with hunger, thirst and heat in the shadow of Big Thumb--a mountain so entwined in Stanley's own family history that he knows if they can reach it they will somehow find salvation.A complex story, riddled with the harsh imagery and barren despair,Holesis a perceptive and intricate homage to family and friendship which never shies away from the harshest of realities yet injects the story of a seemingly hopeless boy with a sly, sideways humour that crackles against the backdrop of the arid wastelands of the desert. An absolute must for anyone, young or old, who relishes an intelligent, courageous and dynamic read. (Age 11 and over) --Susan Harrison
Postage & Packaging:refer to website Availability:refer to website
Advantages: Beautifully written and crafted yarn Disadvantages: Not a thing!
...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 ... ...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 thing that can happen to you. You will die a slow and painful death. Always.”
~ ~ I’m not in the habit of reading kiddies’ books. Really I’m not. But when my wee lass practically implored me to read a book called “Holes” by an American author called Louis Sachar, then I knew before I even picked it up that it was going to be something special. You see, she wouldn’t be in the habit of asking her old dad to read her literature. In fact, quite the contrary. She tends to keep me well away from her things, in case I put on my “puritan” hat, and declare it as not suitable. (I don’t actually do that TOO often!) Her school had recommended this book by Sachar as good reading for her class. (last year primary) And all the kids in the class were apparently raving about it, and singing its praises. So I decided to take her up on her offer, and see what all the fuss was about.
~ ~ “Holes” is a tale about, well… holes!! Stanley Yelnat’s is a teenager who has been caught trying to nick a pair of old trainers belonging to a famous basketball star. As it happens, he isn’t guilty, the aforementioned trainers having quite literally fallen from the sky (well, a motorway flyover, to be precise) and landed on his head. But the judge doesn’t believe him, and sentences him to detention at a young offenders institution called Camp Green Lake. There’s no lake at Camp Green Lake anymore, just a dirt-bowl where the lake used to be. The sun is hot enough to boil the blood, and all the young inmates are watched over by a weird collection of jailers. There’s Mr. Sir, the head guard who has given up smoking and taken instead to scoffing copious amounts of sunflower seeds. A social worker with dubious morals called Mr. Pendanski, who all the inmates call “Mom”, and a female warden called Ms. Walker, whose family has owned the land around Green Lake for generations, and who paints her long fingernails with rattlesnake venom! The young inmates themselves are all housed in tents containing six persons, and are roused from their slumber each morning at 4.30 AM in order to start their rehabilitation. This consists of going out to the dried up lake, and digging a hole exactly five feet broad by five feet deep in the 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 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 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!
~ ~ All the boys in Stanley’s tent have nicknames for each other. Stanley is called Caveman, (‘cos he’s a big lad) and you also have Zero, X-Ray, Armpit, Squid, Magnet, and Zigzag. (what wonderful nicknames!) Stanley befriends Zero, who entices him to teach him to read and write, in exchange for digging part of his hole for him every day. But when the warden discovers this ploy, the shit hits the proverbial, and Zero ends up running off into the desert, with Stanley following him soon after.
~ ~ In conjunction with the story about the boys, Sachar also relates to us the heartbreaking history of Green Lake, which over a century back was a thriving community until the water in the lake decided to dry up forever. And, in particular, he tells us the story of a pretty schoolteacher called Katherine Barlow, who made the fatal mistake of falling in love with the local onion seller, a black man called Sam. These were unenlightened times, and the local community turn on her for her folly, burning down her schoolhouse, and hunting down and killing her lover Sam when they try to flee to safety in his boat. It was seemingly then that the rain decided to stop falling on Green Lake. Katherine Barlow shoots dead the local sheriff, and turns to a life of crime, becoming one of the most feared bandits in the vicinity, under her new pseudonym of “Kissing Kate”. (so called because she has a penchant for giving all her victims a big, sloppy kiss!) It’s in this role that she meets our hero Stanley’s great-grandfather, who she relieves of his fortune. She is eventually captured by one of the Walker clan, (who own green Lake, remember) but is bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard and dies before she can reveal (under torture) where she has buried her ill-gotten gains. And that’s before you mention the other story about Stanley's “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather” from Latvia! Or the tale about Stanley’s father, who is trying to invent a cure for foot odour!
~ ~ Maybe you’re beginning to get the picture. Sachar cleverly expounds the parallel stories, and then at the end of the book cleverly brings them all together. To tell you any more of the plot would be to totally spoil the story for you. But there again, maybe not! The story is clever enough, and says much for the author’s inventive imagination, but it is the way that Sachar weaves his yarn that leaves you literally spell bound, and unable to put this book down. The relationships between all the different characters are well developed, and he touches on a number of contentious issues, such as innocence and guilt, and racial inequality. (some of the inmates are black boys) But it is the simple writing style, and brilliant story telling, that most appealed to me, and which I’m sure endears the book to its many young readers. It’s unusual to find a writer who can bridge the generation gap so effectively as Sachar does.
~ ~ I devoured this book in one sitting, and can’t wait to get my hands on some of the author’s other work. According to Amazon, Sachar has published 84 other children’s books, so you would have to describe him as a prolific writer. This book was first published in the USA back in 1998, and released in the UK in 2000. He has a follow up book to “Holes” called “Camp Green Lake Survival Guide”, which was only released in the UK on the 17th March, and which I now have on order. I can already see a fight developing between my wee lass and me to see who will get to read it first. (she’ll probably win, ‘cos I’m a big softie really!) And don’t just take my word for it that this book is a classic! It is the first book ever to win the National Book Award for Young People's Literature awarded by the National Book Foundation in the USA, and the Newbery Medal, which is the highest award of the American Library Association, in the same year.
Advantages: A skillful mix of styles and influences, memorable characters. Disadvantages: The narrative reaches great heights, but can't quite keep them up.
...strong narrative pulling it along, Holes appeals across the age range. Although ostensibly a tale of mystery and endurance, Holes appeals so strongly because of the way in which it weaves a multitude of other themes and styles into the storytelling. Wild-West backstories, European folklore and a hint of black comedy pepper the narrative, adding depth and substance to the novel and giving a sense of life beyond the limits of the pages. The book also ... ...upon them. Holes is an entertaining, exceedingly well-written novel that moves along at a pace sufficient to keep most readers rapt. If there's a weakness it's that it moves away from its most effective sections - those spent digging the eponymous holes - rather sooner than one might wish. Though the novel gains in terms of progressing the plot, it takes awhile before it can again reach for the heights of this part of the book, where Sachar paints ...
Puggers 24.03.2009
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Holes - Louis Sachar
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 ...
jillmurphy 08.08.2003 (13.08.2003)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Holes - Louis Sachar
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 ...
bluejules 02.02.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Holes - Louis Sachar
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 ...
theediscerning 09.01.2004
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Holes - Louis Sachar
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 ...
bubbletown 03.11.2003 (09.11.2003)
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Holes - Louis Sachar
Would you read it again?
Story
Characters
Readability
Similar reviews »
Reviews which might be of interest for "Holes - Louis Sachar"
Advantages: Great plot, Ideal for any age Disadvantages: £ Was expensive £
This is a fantastic follow-up to Holes by LouisSachar. 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 LouisSachar, 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, in ...
Advantages: anarchic, original and funny Disadvantages: could, I suppose, get old quite quickly
If you?re reading this and you?ve heard of LouisSachar, 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 ...
When Stanley Yelnats is sent to Camp Green Lake detention centre for a crime he did not commit, life becomes much more of a challenge. First of all, he has to dig a hole a day - as deep as a man - in the baking Texas heat, looking for who knows what. Then, he has to avoid the cruel Mr Sir and the menacing warden. Will Stanley survive in this hostile environment? This is a wonderful, heartwarming, funny and life-affirming novel that is both genuinely original and brilliantly written.
Compare Holes - Louis Sachar to other similar Children's Books »
