Citation:
Sachar, Louis. Holes.
New York: Scholastic, 1998. Print.
Annotation:
Stanley Yelnats lives daily with the curse that has been in
his family from the time of his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather”.
It should come as no surprise when he is falsely accused of stealing and can
either chose jail or Camp Green Lake, a juvenile corrections camp. You’d think
camp would be preferable but not when it involves a mean warden and digging
lots and lots of holes.
Nomination Thoughts:
I have not seen the movie and was curious to read the book.
Stanley is 13 years old, chubby, has no friends and gets bullied in school. He
feels everything bad that happens to him is because of family curse. The author
brings together the story of Stanley’s time at the detention center and that of
his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather”. Stanley comes to realize that the
warden may be saying she makes the boys dig holes to build character but in
reality she is making them dig holes to find a treasure connected to Stanley’s
family curse. Regardless what the odds are, it does make a good story.
Stanley’s life does improve at the camp because he makes friends and stands up
for them. Sachar tells the story with humor and deals with many issues that
face YA- isolation, finding courage, justice and redemption. It’s got a
saccharine sweet ending but that’s kind of the cheesy ending this humorous book
is destined to deliver.
Nominate:
No… but a soft no. My biggest problem with the book in terms
of nominating it for our Printz book is its range. I feel the book’s appeal is
too focused on young YA and might not appeal to girls enough.
Genre:
Humor, Coming of Age, Adventure
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