Holes is a book by Louis Sachar. We enjoyed this book very much. If you like adventure, mystery, or suspense, Holes is just the right book for you. It is about a boy named Stanley Yelnats. When Stanley got accused of stealing a pair of a baseball star’s shoes, he went to court and got two choices. Go to jail or go to camp Greenlake. Stanley chose to go to camp Greenlake. His family was not the richest, and Stanley had never been to camp before. At camp, he was greeted with fellow boys who understood him. They all had nicknames, Stanley’s being caveman for his size. 

The conditions were not great at this camp. It was constantly scorching hot and showers were not given freely, for they had the only water for 100 miles. No one dared to run away. Each person had to dig a hole a day, each being 5 feet in all directions. Whenever someone found something, they would each get a day off. People thought if they punished a kid really badly, when they get released, they would learn their lesson and never do whatever they did again but actually, they were far off. When Stanley dug his first hole, his hands were bleeding and full of huge blisters. The bed was even worse, it smelled of rotten dry milk and was super prickly. 

This camp actually had a legend, but in order for you to know what it is, you must read it yourself! Now, back to the story! His bed was previously owned by a camp mate who got bitten by a rattlesnake. Everyone feared the red-eyed lizards, one bite and you were gone. He met a boy named zero, who’s name was not actually zero.(you would know who he was if you want to read the book!) Stanley taught him how to read and write, and zero told him about how he does not have a mother anymore. 

One day, while Stanley was digging, He found a clue related to the legend, and remembered exactly where he put it. The warden told him to look elsewhere, and no one listened to him. Later in the night, Stanley went off to find zero, and he trekked a long way to find him. They quickly lost all their water, and the plan was to go back to camp and dig a hole from where Stanley found the clue. When they got out of their shelter, they dug real deep and found some water, and onions. If you want to find out what happened on their epic adventure, read HOLES by Louis Sachar to find out!

Achievements:

Holes won the 1998 U.S. National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal for the year’s “most distinguished contribution to American literature for children”.

About the author : Louis Sachar

Louis was born in East Meadow, New York on March 20, 1954. He lived there until third grade, then moved to california. When Louis started high school, he became an avid reader and was inspired by many different authors such as J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut. He first attended Antioch College in Ohio, and had a career as a cleaning supply seller. After that, he went back to a college in california in order for him to be close to his mother because his father had passed away. He had a short but surprisingly very successful career as a Fuller Brush man ( he went door-to-door selling cleaning products ). After that, he returned to college, this time to the University of California at Berkeley where he enrolled in Economics. On campus one day, Louis saw the doubtful sight of an elementary school girl handing out flyers. He took one from her. It read: “Help. We need teacher’s aides at our school. Earn three units of credit.” Louis thought it over and decided it was a fine/good deal. College credits, no homework, no term papers, no tests, all he had to do was help out in a second and third grade class at Hillside Elementary School. Nine months later, he wrote a series Sideways Stories From Wayside School which was published in 1976. In 1980, he passed law school and kept writing his series. Soon, his books were good enough so that he could devote himself to reading.  Now he is 66 years old and continues to write.