Growing Up & Facts of Life
![Louis Sachar - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B000AQ44EM.jpg)
Holes (Holes Series)
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NEWBERY MEDAL WINNER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME
Dig deep in this award-winning, modern classic that will remind readers that adventure is right around the corner--or just under your feet!
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 Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.
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. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment-and redemption.
"A smart jigsaw puzzle of a novel." -New York Times
*Includes a double bonus: an excerpt from Small Steps, the follow-up to Holes, as well as an excerpt from the New York Times bestseller Fuzzy Mud.
Dig deep in this award-winning, modern classic that will remind readers that adventure is right around the corner--or just under your feet!
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 Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.
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. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment-and redemption.
"A smart jigsaw puzzle of a novel." -New York Times
*Includes a double bonus: an excerpt from Small Steps, the follow-up to Holes, as well as an excerpt from the New York Times bestseller Fuzzy Mud.
Editorial Reviews
Winner of the Newbery Medal
Winner of the National Book Award
#1 New York Times Bestseller
A New York Public Library's 100 Great Children's Books 100 Years Selection
"A dazzling blend of social commentary, tall tale and magic realism." -Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"There is no question, kids will love Holes." -School Library Journal, Starred Review
"[A] rugged, engrossing adventure." -Kirkus Reviews
"This delightfully clever story is well-crafted and thought-provoking." -VOYA
"[Sachar] comes fully, brilliantly into his own voice. This is a can't-put-it-down read." -The Bulletin
Winner of the National Book Award
#1 New York Times Bestseller
A New York Public Library's 100 Great Children's Books 100 Years Selection
"A dazzling blend of social commentary, tall tale and magic realism." -Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"There is no question, kids will love Holes." -School Library Journal, Starred Review
"[A] rugged, engrossing adventure." -Kirkus Reviews
"This delightfully clever story is well-crafted and thought-provoking." -VOYA
"[Sachar] comes fully, brilliantly into his own voice. This is a can't-put-it-down read." -The Bulletin
Readers Top Reviews
PuceEmuRachel McElha
Passed this book around to all the young people in our family, and currently not sure which family has it. That is, AFTER we read it together in the car on a road trip. Awesome book, can't hardly put it down. If you want to get your kids reading, force them to read the first chapter and you won't see them until they've finished. :)
former hokie
Such a good book. All three of my kids read this in middle school and I've read it myself. It has mystery to keep you entertained and the main characters are great examples of good triumphing over evil. If you want a book that is a fun and a fast, read plus is really easy to write an A+ book report on, then choose this book.
Judi
As a teacher, I was stumped how I was going to form a reading group with the same book since we weren't meeting in person. I had the books delivered to my kiddos by Amazon! It happened to be a group of all boys and one girl. There was adventure and suspense and all the students couldn't wait to read each chapter. I highly recommend this book. My readers were 2nd graders, but they were definitely advanced readers. It would absolutely be appropriate for 3rd-5th graders.
BBD
The flashbacks really helped you understand more about the story and characters. Loved how the characters are all connected like in a spiderweb.
Rachel
I finally decided to check this book out after years of watching the movie. I'm so happy I did, because it's way better than the film (as is usually the case), which is saying something. I won't give anything away with regards to the plot, but I'll say this much - I highly recommend it not just for young adults, but for us older adults as well. ;)
Short Excerpt Teaser
Stanley Yelnats was the only passenger on the bus, not counting the driver or the guard. The guard sat next to the driver with his seat turned around facing Stanley. A rifle lay across his lap.
Stanley was sitting about ten rows back, handcuffed to his armrest. His backpack lay on the seat next to him. It contained his toothbrush, toothpaste, and a box of stationary his mother had given him. He'd promised to write to her at least once a week.
He looked out the window, although there wasn't much to see-mostly fields of hay and cotton. He was on a long bus ride to nowhere. The bus wasn't air-conditioned, and the hot heavy air was almost as stifling as the handcuffs.
Stanley and his parents had tried to pretend that he was just going away to camp for a while, just like rich kids do. When Stanley was younger he used to play with stuffed animals, and pretend the animals were at camp. Camp Fun and Games he called it. Sometimes he'd have them play soccer with a marble. Other times they'd run an obstacle course, or go bungee jumping off a table, tied to broken rubber bands. Now Stanley tried to pretend he was going to Camp Fun and Games. Maybe he' d make some friends, he thought. At least he'd get to swim in the lake.
He didn' t have any friends at home. He was overweight and the kids at his middle school often teased him about his size. Even his teachers sometimes made cruel comments without realizing it. On his last day of school, his math teacher, Mrs. Bell, taught ratios. As an example, she chose the heaviest kid in the class and the lightest kid in the class, and had them weigh themselves. Stanley weighed three times as much as the other boy. Mrs. Bell wrote the ratio on the board, 3:1, unaware of how much embarrassment she had caused both of them.
Stanley was arrested later that day.
He looked at the guard who sat slumped in his seat and wondered of he had fallen asleep. The guard was wearing sunglasses, so Stanley couldn't see his eyes.
Stanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!
He smiled. It was a family joke. Whenever anything went wrong, they always blamed Stanley's no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!
Supposedly, he had a great-great-grandfather who had stolen a pig from one-legged Gypsy, and she put a curse on him and all his descendants. Stanley and his parents didn't believe in curses, of course, but whenever anything went wrong, it felt good to be able to blame someone.
Things went wrong a lot. They always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He looked out the window at the vast emptiness. He watched the rise and fall of a telephone wire. In his mind he could hear his father's gruff voice softly singing to him.
"If only, if only," the woodpecker sighs,
"The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer."
"While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,
He cries to the moo–oo–oon,
"If only, if only."
It was a song his father used to sing to him. The melody was sweet and sad, but Stanley's favorite part was when his father would howl the word "moon".
The bus hit a small bump and the guard sat up, instantly alert.
Stanley's father was an inventor. To be a successful inventor you need three things: intelligence, perseverance, and just a little bit of luck.
Stanley's father was smart and had a lot of perseverance. Once he started a project he would work on it for years, often going days without sleep. He just never had any luck.
Every time an experiment failed, Stanley could hear him cursing his dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.
Stanley's father was also named Stanley Yelnats. Stanley's father's full name was Stanley Yelnats III. Our Stanley is Stanley Yelnats IV.
Everyone in his family had always liked the fact that "Stanley Yelnats" was spelled the same frontward and backward. So they kept naming their sons Stanley. Stanley was an only child, as was every other Stanley Yelnats before him.
All of them had something else in common. Despite their awful luck, they always remained hopeful. As Stanley's father liked to say, " I learned from failure."
But perhaps that was part of the curse as well. If Stanley and his father weren't always hopeful, then it wouldn't hurt so much every time their hopes were crushed.
"Not every Stanley Yelnats has been a failure," Stanley's mother often pointed out, whenever Stanley or his father became so discouraged that they actually started to believe in the curse. The first Stanley Yeln...
Stanley was sitting about ten rows back, handcuffed to his armrest. His backpack lay on the seat next to him. It contained his toothbrush, toothpaste, and a box of stationary his mother had given him. He'd promised to write to her at least once a week.
He looked out the window, although there wasn't much to see-mostly fields of hay and cotton. He was on a long bus ride to nowhere. The bus wasn't air-conditioned, and the hot heavy air was almost as stifling as the handcuffs.
Stanley and his parents had tried to pretend that he was just going away to camp for a while, just like rich kids do. When Stanley was younger he used to play with stuffed animals, and pretend the animals were at camp. Camp Fun and Games he called it. Sometimes he'd have them play soccer with a marble. Other times they'd run an obstacle course, or go bungee jumping off a table, tied to broken rubber bands. Now Stanley tried to pretend he was going to Camp Fun and Games. Maybe he' d make some friends, he thought. At least he'd get to swim in the lake.
He didn' t have any friends at home. He was overweight and the kids at his middle school often teased him about his size. Even his teachers sometimes made cruel comments without realizing it. On his last day of school, his math teacher, Mrs. Bell, taught ratios. As an example, she chose the heaviest kid in the class and the lightest kid in the class, and had them weigh themselves. Stanley weighed three times as much as the other boy. Mrs. Bell wrote the ratio on the board, 3:1, unaware of how much embarrassment she had caused both of them.
Stanley was arrested later that day.
He looked at the guard who sat slumped in his seat and wondered of he had fallen asleep. The guard was wearing sunglasses, so Stanley couldn't see his eyes.
Stanley was not a bad kid. He was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It was all because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!
He smiled. It was a family joke. Whenever anything went wrong, they always blamed Stanley's no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!
Supposedly, he had a great-great-grandfather who had stolen a pig from one-legged Gypsy, and she put a curse on him and all his descendants. Stanley and his parents didn't believe in curses, of course, but whenever anything went wrong, it felt good to be able to blame someone.
Things went wrong a lot. They always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
He looked out the window at the vast emptiness. He watched the rise and fall of a telephone wire. In his mind he could hear his father's gruff voice softly singing to him.
"If only, if only," the woodpecker sighs,
"The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer."
"While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,
He cries to the moo–oo–oon,
"If only, if only."
It was a song his father used to sing to him. The melody was sweet and sad, but Stanley's favorite part was when his father would howl the word "moon".
The bus hit a small bump and the guard sat up, instantly alert.
Stanley's father was an inventor. To be a successful inventor you need three things: intelligence, perseverance, and just a little bit of luck.
Stanley's father was smart and had a lot of perseverance. Once he started a project he would work on it for years, often going days without sleep. He just never had any luck.
Every time an experiment failed, Stanley could hear him cursing his dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather.
Stanley's father was also named Stanley Yelnats. Stanley's father's full name was Stanley Yelnats III. Our Stanley is Stanley Yelnats IV.
Everyone in his family had always liked the fact that "Stanley Yelnats" was spelled the same frontward and backward. So they kept naming their sons Stanley. Stanley was an only child, as was every other Stanley Yelnats before him.
All of them had something else in common. Despite their awful luck, they always remained hopeful. As Stanley's father liked to say, " I learned from failure."
But perhaps that was part of the curse as well. If Stanley and his father weren't always hopeful, then it wouldn't hurt so much every time their hopes were crushed.
"Not every Stanley Yelnats has been a failure," Stanley's mother often pointed out, whenever Stanley or his father became so discouraged that they actually started to believe in the curse. The first Stanley Yeln...
