Holes -- a Book Review

An Evaluation of Louis Sachar’s Newberry Medal-Winning Novel

Apr 4, 2009 Jessica Scott

Holes is a brilliant novel about a young boy's struggle to make amends for a crime that he did not commit.

Written by Louis Sachar, Holes is the engrossing tale of a boy named Stanley Yelnats, who is mistakenly convicted of a crime and sent to Camp Green Lake, where he is forced, along with several other juvenile delinquents, to dig holes as punishment for breaking the law. All day long, the boys dig holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep, searching for a mysterious treasure that the camp's warden has been obsessed with finding for years.

Stanley and Zero

Though he is initially shunned by the other members of the camp, Stanley eventually befriends the other loner of the group, a boy that goes by the nickname of Zero. Since Zero is illiterate, Stanley offers to teach him to read in exchange for Zero’s help digging his holes. This plan works out great, until some of the other boys alert the counselors and the two are quickly punished. Finally pushed to his breaking point, Zero runs away into the harsh desert alone. Stanley, ever the faithful comrade, immediately follows, and the two have to brave starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion before ultimately coming across the treasure that the warden had been looking for all along.

Stanley Yelnats the First and Kissing Kate Barlow

Interspersed throughout the story are details about the character’s pasts and ancestors, such as Stanley Yelnats the First, a.k.a. Stanley’s “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather,” who is blamed for the Yelnats family’s bad luck. His transgression regarding the mysterious Madame Zeroni brought a curse upon him, and that curse has trickled down through his family for decades.

Also described are the lives of “Kissing Kate Barlow” and her late lover “Sam the Onion Man,” whose story is pivotal to the overall plot. Kate Barlow was originally a sweet-tempered school teacher, until the local authorities killed Sam, whom she loved with all her heart. This terrible event drove her to hate all of the people in power, so she became an outlaw, stealing from and killing the people who wronged her and Sam. These details, though they seem disconnected at first, bring the overall story together in a way that the reader would have never expected.

Camp Green Lake

Though Holes is written for children, it is a great read for adults and kids alike. Stanley Yelnats is a tremendously likeable and relatable character, and the reader cannot help but to hope for the best for him. The richly textured back story and the compelling story arc make Camp Green Lake a place that the reader will want to revisit over and over again.

Holes was published in 1998 by Scholastic Inc. ISBM: 0-439-25322-5

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Holes by Louis Sachar