Holes- Stefanie Dimofski

Holes- by: Louis Sachar

Summary: The book, Holes,by Louis Sachar is about a young boy named Stanley Yelnets and his endeavors at a juvenile delinquent camp. Stanley is unjustly accused of a crime and sent off to Camp Green Lake in order for him to be disciplined. The disciplining at this camp includes all the young boys having to dig huge holes in the ground. Stanly believes that he is at the camp due to his bad luck, which is from a family curse dating back to his great- grandfather. Stanley begins to realize that the Warden at the camp is actually having the boys dig holes because she is looking for something. As the story goes on, Stanley makes friends with a guy named Zero, and together they overcome the powers of the warden. Eventually Stanley lifts his family's curse and he and Zero serve justice to the campers of Camp Green Lake.

Review: Growing up, Holes, was definitely one of my favorite books. I thought that it had all the great elements to make a story and had plenty of action, drama, and relationships that were tested. After re-reading this book, I definitely was able to pick up on some more less detailed parts of the book which I normally would not have in the past. I think that the book nicely blends the past in with the present and the story truly is written well to tie in Stanley's family curse with the present day time and the location of the camp. I was really impressed at how well written the plot was and how much sense everything made in terms of Stanley's great- grandfather and everything in between. I feel as though even minor details such as the onions and the healing powers of them, to the yellow spotted lizards, all had a proper place within this book.

Throughout this book I noticed a few themes that struck me as very important. The first was the truth within friendships. I believe that Stanley and Zero were such an odd pair of friends at first, but as they struggle with one another throughout the book, their friendship truly makes sense. They are definitely one another's support system and could not have survived without one another. I believe that this book allows kids to realize what a true friend should be and how much one should be able to rely on that friend. I believe that in a classroom setting, it would be beneficial to use this idea of friendship and point out qualities in a good or bad friend. A bad friend example, would be the character X-ray. Students would be able to write out good qualities in which they are looking for within a friend and maybe base some of these qualities even off of Stanly or Zero.

Another theme in which I noticed was how important history was within the book. There are so many stories tied into one and they all build off one another. It is important that Stanly knows these stories from his great-grandfathers past in order to help him in the present. This sense of history also ties in with the idea of fate and how Stanley is destined to go to this camp and break the family curse. Reading this book now made me pick up on some more minor details of the past within Stanley's life and I was able to draw into deeper connections between the stories being told from the past and the present story in which I was reading.

I believe that this book could be used for an older elementary school classroom and even be read by middle school aged children who could analyze the text a little more thoroughly. There could be many activities done with this book and as a class students could compare this book to other folk-tales and analyze the reality of these folk tales and the idea of the Yelnets curse. I also think it would be interesting to see how if we as a class changed parts of the folk tales, how it would affect Stanley throughout the book. For example, if Stanley didn't know certain parts of stories he had heard of his great-grandfather, would he still be successful in breaking the curse? Overall, the story can be analyzed and would provide for an enjoyable read and great discussion within a classroom.


Sachar, Louis. Holes. Turtleback, 2003. Print.