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Sunday, March 29, 2015

Holes by Louis Sachar

Genre: Children's Literature

Setting: Camp Green Lake, a juvenile Detention Facility in Texas.

First Sentence: There is no lake at Camp Green Lake.

When Holes was published it won many awards for excellence in children's literature including the Newbery Award.  A motion picture of the same name was made based on this novel.

Stanley Yelnats and his family are cursed.  It's all the fault of Stanley's great-great-grandfather.  So, when Stanley is at the wrong place at the wrong time, he is arrested and convicted for stealing the shoes of a famous baseball player.

Stanley is sent to Camp Green Lake.  There is to lake there.  And very little green.  But there is plenty of dirt.

Each day every camper digs a hole that is five feet wide and five feet deep.  the Warden says that digging holes builds character.

Exactly why the boys are digging holes is a mystery that the author slowly reveals to us.  The solution includes a dry lake, canned peaches, smelly feet, onions, a kissing bandit, and a love story.

The beauty of this novel is how the author reveals seemingly unrelated details to weave a complex plot.  Eventually, each piece of the puzzle fits together.  In the end, we have a complete narrative with all of the plot lines resolved, and with no loose ends.

In my opinion, it does no matter weather you read the book first or see the movie first.  You will find that there are very few differences between them.

I think that this novel is one of the best I have ever read.

                                                

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