Holes by Louis Sachar

Synopsis:

This is a children’s fiction book about Stanley Yelnats IV, a fourteen year old boy, sent to Camp Green Lake, a correctional boot camp in a desert in Texas after being wrongfully convicted of stealing. His whole family has bad luck and is cursed by his great-great grandfather Elya Yelnats. The boys at Camp Green Lake are required to build their character by daily digging one hole that is five feet wide by five feet deep. They are supervised by Mr. Pendanski.

Mr. Sir is the head counselor of Camp Green Lake and is very domineering and authoritative. The Warden runs Camp Green Lake, and although she is soft-spoken, can also be intimidating and has been violent and abusive in the past towards the campers. The boys are told that if they find anything interesting they will be given a day off by the Warden.

Stanley befriends Zero (Hector Zeroni) and finds out that he is illiterate and starts tutoring him in reading, and Zero offers to help him in return by digging part of his hole for him. When Mr. Pendanski finds out that Stanley is tutoring Zero and not digging his hole, he tells Stanley that he knows Stanley means well but that Zero is too stupid to learn how to read. Zero hits Mr. Pendanski in the face with his shovel and runs away into the desert. Stanley goes into the desert to rescue Zero and finds him hiding under an old wrecked rowboat. Zero tells Stanley that he is the one who stole the sneakers.

Eventually, they return to Camp Green Lake and Stanley digs a hole and finds a suitcase and are caught by the Warden, Mr. Sir and Mr. Pendanski. Stanley’s lawyer and the state attorney general arrive, and Stanley’s conviction is overturned and the Warden claims Stanley stole the suitcase from her, but it has his name on it. Stanley is able to leave the camp and Hector goes with him. Camp Green Lake is shut down by the attorney general, and the suitcase has financial instruments worth two million dollars, and Stanley and Hector split the money.

Review:

I love this book and this is very fun and lighthearted.

“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. Nothing in life is easy. But that’s no reason to give up. You’ll be surprised what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it. After all, you only have one life, so you should try to take the most of it.”

“You’re all special in your own way. You’ve all got something to offer. You have to think about what you want to do, then do it.”

“You’re responsible for yourself. You’ve messed up your life, and it’s up to you to fix it. No one else is going to do it for you for any of you.”

“When you spend your whole life living in a hole, the only way you can go is up.”