Holes

The book Holes by Louis Sachar is about young boy, Stanley Yelnats, who gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and ends up paying for it. Stanley gets caught with a red pair of basketball shoes that had once belonged to a famous basketball player. The basketball player had donated the shoes to a homeless shelter, and someone stole them, but right when they were about to get caught they threw them off of a bridge, and unfortunately Stanley catches the shoes, and gets arrested. For his punishment, Stanley gets sentenced to 6 months in Camp Green Lake juvenile correctional facility. Stanley’s family blames his bad luck on a curse, from century’s back, that was placed on the family from their great-great grandfather, who broke a promise to Madam Zeroni. When Stanley gets to Camp Green Lake he realizes that there is in fact no lake, but the camp is in the middle of a desert. The camp is run by Warden, who is cruel to everyone, unless they do exactly as she says, and then they get rewarded. Warden has the boys dig 5 by 5 holes everyday as their punishment and says she does it to “build character”. We find out as the book goes on that Warden is having them dig holes in hopes to find the treasure of Kate Barlow, a used to be school-teacher century’s ago, who turned into an outlaw after Stanley’s great-great-grandfather killed her black lover. The boys at the camp are all unique. One boy, X-ray is the unofficial leader because he has been at the camp the longest. If any of the other boys in the camp find something while they are digging then they are supposed to give it to X-ray because they can turn in what they find, and if Warden likes it, they get the rest of the day off. Another boy at the camp is Zigzag. He is the most violent boy at camp, who does not like new comers, especially Stanley. Armpit, the fat boy in the camp, always smells and at first he does not like Stanley, but they eventually become close companions. Squid, the tough kid in camp, always taunts Stanley about how he writes home to his mother, but one time, in confidence, Squid tells Stanley that he still cares about his mother and wants her to know that he is doing better. Magnet is the thief at camp, and got his nickname because he claims his hands are like magnets. Zero is the quiet boy at camp, who is amazingly fast at digging his hole, and he and Stanley become best friends. One day, Zero gets sick and tired of getting made fun of by everyone about how he is dumb because he doesn’t talk, so he runs away. The Warden does not worry because she knows they are in the middle of the desert with no water for hundreds of miles, so she knows he will eventually have to come back or he will die. Stanley begins to worry about Zero so after 3 days, he also runs away. He finds Zero hiding under an abandoned boat. Zero and Stanley get to talking and realize that Zero was the boy who threw the shoes that Stanley caught and had to come to the Camp because. They also find out that both of their families are cursed with the same curse. Zero’s great-great-grandmother was Madam Zeroni, the one who put the curse on the Yelnats family. Together Stanley and Zero climb to the top of a mountain, because they heard that magic onions and water sat upon the top of the mountain. They reach the top and find that the legend is true. Once the boys reach the top they realize that they must go back to camp to find the treasure so they can break their families curse. The boys go back to the camp, and find the treasure! As soon as they find the treasure it begins to rain in the desert for the first time since the death of Kate Barlow. The Warden tries to take the treasure from the boys, but as soon as she does Stanley’s lawyer shows up with an order to shut down Camp Green Lake and take home Stanley. Stanley convinces his lawyer to take Zero and the rest of the boys along, and she agrees. Stanley’s family is ecstatic to see him when he arrives home and even more excited when they find that he brought the treasure with him. They split the treasure between the Yelnats family, and Zero because it was half Zero’s families. With the money from the treasure Zero hires a private detective to find his mother. The detective finds Zero’s mother and they are happily reunited. The other boys from Camp Yelnats all straiten out their lives and get on the right path.

This book has a very happy ending and it was a very easy and enjoyable read. I would recommend it to any young reader from 3rd to 6th grade.