I bought this book for my son who entered 6th grade this year. It was a mandatory reading grade that had to be done by August 1, 2008. I listened with intent each time he read a chapter to me. Just as he finsihed the book, they actually showed the movie Holes, on television. So, I got to enjoy the book again.

If you compare this book with many other popular books in recent years, Holes is a sure winner. In comparison, The Kite Runner and The Book Thief are just like kid stuff. I really enjoyed reading this book!

although this is a book recommended for middle schoolers, the author does a great job at switching from past to present while maintaining the interest of the reader.....in my opinion, it is not an easy task for adults to stay on track when authors write in this form, however i am impressed with the coherence that the author was able to accomplish this difficult task.

Great book to read to adolescents. Sensitive and practicle. Good fodder to discuss right and wrong. The movie was good too. Not as good as the book of course, but good as well. Teenage boys told me it was a book to read. Short chapters, lots going on keeps the pages turning.

Holes is set primarily in Texas close to the present day (the late 20th Century), although parts of the book flash back to the same area in Texas in the late 19th Century and to the country of Latvia in the late 19th Century as well. The story is told by an all-knowing narrator who guides the story back and forth between the present day situation of the story and two key plot lines about the past. The bulk of the story centers around the main character and protagonist Stanley Yelnats and his life in a boys' juvenile detention center called Camp Green Lake. Stanley has been falsely convicted of a crime and must work hard all day under the hot Texas sun. The boys in the detention center are forced to dig large holes day after day with no other apparent purpose than to "build character." Stanley's family has been under a curse for generations, which began back in the late 19th Century when Stanley's great-great grandfather Elya broke a promise he made to a gypsy woman named Madame Zeroni. A small part of the story that the narrator tells focuses on how this sub-plot developed in the past and how it still affects Stanley and his family today.
The other side-plot of the story focuses on the town of Green Lake, Texas in the late 19th Century, before the lake became dried up and the place became a juvenile detention center. This part of the story deals with the issues of racism and prejudice, and helps to build up the plot for the present day section of the story, where Stanley and the others are at a juvenile detention center. Stanley struggles to make friends and to survive the tough conditions at Camp Green Lake, and he is always battling the larger fight against his family's curse. He and a friend at the camp (named Zero) discover that the camp's warden (a relative or descendant of Charles Walker) is actually making the boys dig holes because she is looking for something valuable. Stanley finds out about his family's history and how his great grandfather's suitcase full of money is buried somewhere in Camp Green Lake. When Stanley's friend Zero escapes from the camp, Stanley escapes as well to go and help him. They figure out that Zero is a direct descendant of the gypsy Madame Zeroni, and so the boys sort of heal that old family rift and thus lift the curse off of Stanley's family. When they return to the camp a week later the boys find the suitcase. The warden tries to take it from them but Stanley's lawyer finally shows up, proves his innocence, and allows Stanley and Zero to leave the detention center (with the suitcase full of money!). The story concludes happily with Stanley and Zero receiving a million dollars each for the stocks and jewels in the suitcase, with the detention center closing down so that a girl scout camp can be built, and with Stanley's father finally creating a cure for foot odor which makes him rich.
There are not many negative aspects to Holes, as it is an excellent read for adults and children alike. One drawback may be that the chapters are very short, spanning two or three pages on average. This makes the story a bit choppy at times as it flips back and forth between the past and the present settings without much warning. Some readers might like the short chapters though, as it keeps the story moving and keeps the reader on his or her toes. I personally think that Holes is a great novel for emerging young readers. It has a rich and complex plot but is not too difficult to read and understand. The author weaves a good mix of humor and fate, and the characters are very realistic and relatable. I like how the characters in the book are diverse and represent different types of kids with different economic and racial backgrounds. Holes is an enjoyable book to read and contains many plot twists and turns that will keep you interested. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in reading it.

"Holes" by Louis Sachar (1998). Random House, Inc: New York. 233 pages. Realistic Fiction. Grade level: 5.30.
Holes is about a boy whose life is affected by the past. Most notably, Stanley Yelnats, has a family curse from his "no-good-dirty-rotten pig stealing great-great-grandfather" who did not carry out a promise to a magic woman. Stanley's family blames most of their problems on this ancestor. Stanley's father is a poor inventor who works hard but has no luck. He is currently working on trying to invent a spray to remove foot odor. One day, Stanley is walking and a pair of sneakers fall from the sky so he naturally takes them home to his father. It turns out, the sneakers were from a famous basketball player who is donating them to charity. Staney is arrested and sent to Camp Greenlake for his punishment and "rehabilitation." Once he gets to the camp in Texas, Stanley quickly realizes that it is not a camp in the typical sense and there is no lake to be found. He is forced to dig one 5 foot by 5 foot hole each day in the scorching heat and report to the warden if he finds anything interesting. He is accompanied by other juvenile offenders who all fend for themselves and try to survive the grueling work and horrible living conditions. There are no fences, because if they ran away they would die in the desert.
The story also goes takes the reader on flashbacks to the time when the area actually was a lake in the early settling times. It was a small town that was an oasis in the middle of the desert. The one-room school house was run by Kate Barlow who happily taught the town's children and adults alike. Kate takes to the town onion seller who happens to be black. This is, of course, unacceptable at the time so the town kills him and runs her out of town. From that point on, she changes and becomes "kissin' Kate Barlow" an outlaw who prays on unsuspecting travelers and kisses them before she kills them. The town's luck and lake run dry and it becomes abandoned. Before she dies, she buries all of her treasure on the grounds of the lake. Stanley's great-grandfather was robbed by Kate Barlow, but not killed. He survived by "God's thumb" and miraculously lived although no one knew what that meant.
Back in present day, Stanley and another boy Zero run away from camp because they are fed up. They know they must go back or they will die. Stanley notices that a mountain nearby looks like a thumb and they decide to see if they can survive there. After days of walking in the desert, with no water and little food, they make it up the mountain. Stanley carries Zero and they discover a spring filled with onions which they eat until they are healthy again. In carrying this boy up the mountain, Stanley reverses his great-great-grandfather's curse. They decide to return to camp to find the buried treasure. When they get there, they find it but are caught. However, it turns out that the treasure is in a case labeled with Stanley's name on it, which was his great-grandfather's. A lawyer comes to get Stanley out of the camp because he is innocent and ends up closing the camp because it is illegal treatment of the boys. Stanley and Zero become rich and Zero finds his mother with his money. In the end, each character gets what they deserved.
I think this book was amazing. It was elaborately interwoven with past and present. It exposes the realities of fate while at the same time showing the strength and necessity of strong moral character. Stanley and Zero learn to believe in themselves. This book is inspiring and very entertaining. My only concern, is that the author could have discussed the racial issues in the story more. There is the interracial relationship in the past with Kate and also the way the boys at the camp relate to each other based on their races. This was not the focus of the book, which is probably why Sachar did not elaborate on these themes but I think it is a valuable subject to expose. Perhaps, it is merely up to the reader/teacher/parent to discuss the interplay of people of different races in the book. Overall, I was very impressed and would recommend this book to anyone of any age.

I came across Louis Sachar's HOLES recently while my daughter and I were browsing books. I hadn't seen the 2003 movie, but remembered the trailers and so, since my daughter had settled down with a book, I decided to read a bit of it. Nine chapters (okay, short chapters) later, I was still going strong when my daughter was ready to go. I was hooked. This is what they call "juvenile fiction," right? If you've ever read Lewis Carroll, you'd have to agree that the term "juvenile fiction" is a very elastic term. Put plainly, the fact that juvenile fiction is (usually?) about children doesn't mean that the style is any way immature or unsophisticated.



HOLES is a story about a middle school-aged boy, Stanley Yelnats, who is falsely charged with and convicted of stealing a pair of celebrity sneakers that had been donated to charity. Yelnats is sentenced to "Camp Lake Green," a boys' detention center and work camp located in the middle of a Texas desert. Camp Lake Green, as it turns out, is a cruel bizarro-world version of a normal summer camp. There is no lake; it dried up decades before. And there is only one activity to speak of: digging holes, one a day, five feet deep and five feet in diameter, ostensibly to build character. There is, however, a mystery behind the digging. The camp's vicious warden wants to be notified of anything "interesting" that's discovered by the boys while digging.



The mystery is literally and figuratively uncovered by Yelnats, whom the other "campers" call "Caveman." The narrator relates vignettes about Yelnats's ancestors; these stories, while interesting in themselves, are also critical to understanding the mystery of the warden's interest in the holes.



Sachar's prose is beautifully astringent; like Hemingway, Sachar rarely employs the unnecessary word. The story and the characters are likewise straightforward: I think that the lack of real ambiguity in the characters' behavior helps younger readers to relate more easily to the people and the events in the book.



As a parent, I would recommend reading the book yourself--if only for your own enjoyment--before encouraging your child to read it. The novel is very dark in some places; the warden, for instance, is particularly sadistic, and doesn't really get her full comeuppance by story's end. But I think HOLES is a terrific story, with memorable characters, and with wonderfully moving, poignant, funny passages. Children over the age of ten (and, well, adults) will, I think, love reading it.

I came across Louis Sachar's HOLES recently while my daughter and I were browsing books. I hadn't seen the 2003 movie, but remembered the trailers and so, since my daughter had settled down with a book, I decided to read a bit of it. Nine chapters (okay, short chapters) later, I was still going strong when my daughter was ready to go. I was hooked. This is what they call "juvenile fiction," right? If you've ever read Lewis Carroll, you'd have to agree that the term "juvenile fiction" is a very elastic term. Put plainly, the fact that juvenile fiction is (usually?) about children doesn't mean that the style is any way immature or unsophisticated.

HOLES is a story about a middle school-aged boy, Stanley Yelnats, who is falsely charged with and convicted of stealing a pair of celebrity sneakers that had been donated to charity. Yelnats is sentenced to "Camp Lake Green," a boys' detention center and work camp located in the middle of a Texas desert. Camp Lake Green, as it turns out, is a cruel bizarro-world version of a normal summer camp. There is no lake; it dried up decades before. And there is only one activity to speak of: digging holes, one a day, five feet deep and five feet in diameter, ostensibly to build character. There is, however, a mystery behind the digging. The camp's vicious warden wants to be notified of anything "interesting" that's discovered by the boys while digging.

The mystery is literally and figuratively uncovered by Yelnats, whom the other "campers" call "Caveman." The narrator relates vignettes about Yelnats's ancestors; these stories, while interesting in themselves, are also critical to understanding the mystery of the warden's interest in the holes.

Sachar's prose is beautifully astringent; like Hemingway, Sachar rarely employs the unnecessary word. The story and the characters are likewise straightforward: I think that the lack of real ambiguity in the characters' behavior helps younger readers to relate more easily to the people and the events in the book.

As a parent, I would recommend reading the book yourself--if only for your own enjoyment--before encouraging your child to read it. The novel is very dark in some places; the warden, for instance, is particularly sadistic, and doesn't really get her full comeuppance by story's end. But I think HOLES is a terrific story, with memorable characters, and with wonderfully moving, poignant, funny passages. Children over the age of ten (and, well, adults) will, I think, love reading it.

I saw the movie first. I loved it. I laughed, I cried, it moved me. So I decided to read the book.

Of course, if I loved the movie, I had to love the book, because they are exactly the same. This, I must admit, is a little disappointing. I can't deny the exceptional quality of either medium, but, when a movie producer decides to take a really good book in hand and reproduce it for the screen, I like to se him or her take a few artistic liberties. I want to see some kind of significant difference between the original format and the reproduction.

Oh well. I suppose my advice to all is this: choose one or the other. There really isn't much of a point in seeing the movie and reading the book. Sure, there are a few differences (such as the fact that Sachar, in the book, describes Stanley as overweight, which Shia LeBeouf most certainly is not), but they're insignificant to the overall feel.

I read this book to my 9 and 7 year olds. By the middle - we couldn't stop. We were at the beach with several older cousins who had both read the book and seen the movie and they were all sitting around listening. It made them all want to re-read it.

The plot is not hard to follow but is very intertwined. Amazingly so.

Enjoy this book with your kids

Holes
Have you ever been in a place that is super hot well in the book Holes by "Louis Sachar", young boy goes to a camp which is located in the desert. Stanley Yelnats is young boy whom goes to a camp of kids who don't want to go to jail but go to this camp instead. This camp makes all of them boys realize their mistakes. Stanley had to learn how to make friends without him making the wrong friends who might make him somebody he doesn't want. Stanley makes new friends and a lot of money. One dislike of this book is that I didn't really understand if when Madame Loiselle gets to go to the mountain. This book is really is interesting and really funny.