Book Review by Magdalena Mroczek
Mr Toomey’s 5th Class
Book: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Holes
Holes is an award winning novel and is about a fifteen year old boy called
Stanley Yelnats. Stanley carries the curse that his great, great, great
grandfather brought on the males of the family.
One day Stanley is accused of stealing a pair of runners, by being in the wrong
place at the wrong time. As a result he is sent to a juvenile detention centre
called ‘Camp Green Lake’ in Texas. Here he is made to dig holes which he is told
is good for character building. Stanley soon realises that they are not just
digging as a punishment but actually digging to find something.
Stanley befriends a boy called Zero and together they embark on many
adventures. Will Stanley dig up the hidden truth or will the cruel warden stop
him in his tracks?
This book from a personal view is suited for nine year olds and older. I have
given it a very high rating of 9/10 as it has a good storyline and has many
humorous sub plots. The only flaw with this book was that there were no
illustrations in it which made it hard to formulate a mental image of the camp
and characters. There was also a lot of connections to be made between
Stanley’s grandfather’s past and with what was happening to Stanley in the
present.
Apart from the above flaws it is a great story and I would highly recommend it.