Holes is a 1998 young adult novel written by Louis Sachar and first published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It 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“. Originally, the book was to be called Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Kid.

The story takes place in the present, the past (about a hundred years ago) and the distant past (three generations ago).  At the start, Stanley Yelnats is being sent to a detention centre for troubled boys, Camp Green Lake.  He is going because everyone believes he stole a pair of used and stinky (but very valuable) sneakers.  In order to improve their character, each boy at the camp must dig a hole exactly five feet wide and five feet deep every day. Read on and you’ll see how the present fixes the past and the past saves the present.

This is one of our Year 6 class novels. It is a wonderful book full of adventure and suspense. The way Louis Sachar unravels the story (which is actually 3 stories into one) is ingenious. It’s all in the detail which is used. Just about every detail is used at least twice – once in the present and also in the past, making everything tie in beautifully. I thoroughly enjoyed it and feedback from the children was great! I can’t wait to read it again!

What are your thoughts on this book? I look forward to reading them!