Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Copyright: 1998
Pages: 233
Reading Level: 6
Genre: Fiction Chapter Book
Rating: ***

Summary:
I am sure you know the story of Holes, so I will do my best to sum this one up quickly into a nice little nutshell. I say this only because if you haven’t already read the book, you most likely have seen the movie and unlike most books turned into movies, they are 99% one in the same. So here is is…Holes is a camp for juvenile boys. At Holes they dig holes all day everyday in the hot sun. Once their hole is dug (the requirements being it has to be as deep and as wide as their shovel) they can go back to camp out of the scorching heat. Stanley Yelnats and his family have horrible luck. This is all due to his pig stealing great grandfather who went to Madam Zeroni so that he could win the woman’s hand he loved, she gave him what he needed, but he never kept his end of the deal. So thus she cursed all of his decedents. Well one day Stanley is walking below the overpass and shoes fall from the sky, well these shoes end up being a famous mans shoes that had been stolen that day, and Stanley is thrown in jail. He can choose to either stay in jail, or go to camp Holes. Naturally he chooses camp. Once he is there he like the other boys is given a nickname, unlike barfbag or twitch he gets caveman. Now when he is there he meets Zero, zero is a fast digger but he can’t read. So they make an arrangement. Stanley will teach him how to read, if he will help Stanley with his hole. Well one day the kids start fighting and it comes out that they are helping each other and Mr.Pendanski forbids them to help each other and tells Stanley that Zero is too stupid to learn to read. Zero hits him in the head and runs away. The next day Stanley being the friend to Zero that he is, goes to find him and bring him water. Well he finds him, next to a boat. This turns out to tie into another part of the story, the part with the great grandfather. Well the boat ya see was Kissin Kate Barlows, and she canned peaches, and those peaches are what not only keeps the boys alive, but is half the cure for Stanley father’s food odor formula. So the boys are out on the dry lake for quite some time, when Zero gets very sick. So Stanley takes him and carries him to the top of the mountain, where they finally find water. Once they are rejuvenated, they head back down and into camp to find the money from Kissin Kate, which is the whole reason the boys dig whole every day. Now they go to the whole where they found a tube of her lipstick and they dig, and dig and they find that chest, but it is covered by poisonous lizards. So when morning comes the warden finds them and they are stuck. Lucky for them though, Stanley’s parole officer shows up, Zero says the chest says Stanleys name one it, and they return home. They agree to give half the fortune to Zero because it is because Stanley carried him up the mountain that the curse was broken, him being Madam Zeroni's great grandson. They spilt the money, the Yelnats luck returns, and they find Zero’s mom and they all live happily ever after.

Who would benefit from reading this?
This is a good book for all kids, but boys especially I think would enjoy reading it. It is overall a great story of friendship. The friendship of Stanley and Zero can be an example for kids to look to.

Potential problems/conflicts:
Some problems with the story is it has some violent parts. Mr. Pendanski is just all around evil and it does have the fact that Stanley was arrested in it.

My reaction:
I have discovered something about myself, if something is talked about a lot and most every likes it, I usually don’t. This book is always raved about, and though it was good, I don’t think it was all it was talked up to be. Had I read it at a younger age, and with less bias I think it would have been better for me. It is a good book, but not one that I will probably ever choose to read again just for my own pleasure. I will keep it around though, for my kids to pull off the shelf and read if they so wish to some day. I do like that it jumps between the past and the present in this story, it makes it a more challenging read, but a more interesting and diverse one.