4^th Grade and Up

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten- pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys “build character” by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

This book deserves its Newberry Award. This is one of those stories you can read over and over again and still enjoy it.

I love how the events of the past meet up with the events in the present and how it all just fits together. If you haven’t read this book, that last sentence probably doesn’t make any sense. As you read this story, you’ll soon realize that every small detail is more significant than you think.

Most movies based on books aren’t really good, but the Holes movie is an exception. Probably because Louis Sachar wrote the movie script, so the movie plot doesn’t fray from the original storyline. The only mistake made is that Stanley is supposed to be overweight. I’m guessing Shia LaBeouf was so great during his auditions that they made an exception.

This weeks’ Weird but True Fact about Digging

You can’t really dig a hole to China from the U.S. – you’d end up in the Indian Ocean.