Holes

Author: Louis Sachar

Coverart by: Bagram Ibatoulline

Published by: Yearling 1998

Genre: Fantasy

Age Range: 4-5 grade

Newbery Award winner

This page turner is about Stanley Yelnats and his experiences as a result of the curse brought on by his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great great-grandfather" . Stanley, an overweight, unpopular boy is accused of a crime he did not committ and since his parents don't have the money to afford a lawyer to defend him he loses the case and finds himself on a bus to Camp Green Lake, "a camp for bad boys". Here he and other boys are forced to dig holes, in what once was a beautiful lake but has for a long time just been a desert wasteland. They dig under the assumption that it will improve their character. Throughout his time at Camp Green Lake Stanley makes friends and becomes more confident in himself despite the hard conditions. He also uncovers the real reason for all the holes, finds a buried treasure and ends his family curse.

I really enjoyed this book. I had been wanting to read it for a long time, so I decided now was as good a time as any. This book really teaches about not judging people by the way they look and shows the bad things that can result because of it (though in this story the result seems to often be a curse). Stanley's great great-grandfather thought that just because a girl in his hometown was beautiful that she was someone he should marry, he found out that she wasn't as great as he originally thought(luckily before he married her). The people in the town of Green Lake wouldn't let Sam learn in the school or be in love with Kate Barlow because of the color of his skin. Stanley found out that even though all of the boys around him were at Camp Green Lake because of bad behavior they were the best friends he could have, something he and many of us might not expect.

This book intertwines many stories and brings them all together to one solution. There is the story of Stanley's great great-grandfather, Madame Zeroni and the beginning of the curse, the story of the town of Green Lake and Kissing Kate Barlow, and Stanley's own story. This would be a great book to use to teach about more complex plots, folk-tales, foreshadowing, etc.

Fifth grade art curriculum includes learning about the art of the Americas. Since in the story Stanley discovers mysteries of the past through digging the art teacher could make a connection to art through archeology. Many of the cultures of the Americas, and around the world, have had to be unearthed and many of the items remaining are the pottery, architecture, and metals and stone works done by these cultures. These things are part of the arts of the Americas. Students can learn how to do some of the techniques used to make these things such as pinch pots, coil pots, or carving.