Fiction, Fantasy, and YA--Holes

REVIEW: FICTION, FANTASY, AND YA

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Sachar, Louis. January 2001. Holes. Westminster, MD: Dell Laurel-Leaf.. ISBN 044022859X

PLOT SUMMARY

The story is narrated by an overweight and ostracized youth, Stanley Yelnats. He is erroneously sent to a juvenile detention camp because he finds and keeps a stolen pair of sneakers that belong to a famous baseball player. He blames his bad luck on the curse that Madame Zeroni put on Stanley’s great-great grandfather, Elya. Elya had promised the handicapped Madame Zeroni, he would carry her to a mountain if she would give him a pig to present as a dowry for his wife. Stanley’s family believes that they have bad luck because Elya did not fulfill his promise. Stanley’s father has been trying without fail for years to create an invention that will make him rich.

The boys at Camp Green each have to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet wide under the hot Texan sun. Stanley meets all the “inmates” and hears their hard luck stories. All of them have nicknames such as Zero, Armpit, X-Ray, etc. The campers decide to call Stanley “Caveman”. He is accepted by the group after he takes the blame for an artifact found in his hole. The warden, counselor, and guard do not care about the boys. The warden only wants them to dig a hole and bring her whatever they find.

Stanley and Zero become close friends because Stanley teaches Zero to read and write and Zero reciprocates by digging the hole for Stanley. Zero is provoked beyond his limits by the counselor and assaults him. He runs away and Stanley follows him. As they try to survive without food in the desert. Zero becomes very weak. Stanley has to carry Zero up a mountain. Stanley finds out that Zero is the one who stole the shoes. The boys also find out that their families are connected. Zero is Madame Zeroni’s grandson, Hector. The two friends survive and find out what the warden is looking for. They go to the camp secretly at night to find the treasure that is buried.

Stanley and Zero find the suitcase that belonged to his ancestors. The story behind the suitcase begins with a relationship between an African American onion and peach seller, Sam, and Katherine a century ago. Sam and Katherine escape in a boat to get away from the town people who want to kill Sam because it is against the law for a black man to kiss a white girl. The boat is destroyed. Sam dies and Kate goes mad and becomes Kissin’ Kate Barlow. She robs Stanley’s grandfather while he is traveling from New York to California and hides the money. Nobody knows where the money is when Kate dies. Green lake dries up after Sam’s death and is later used as a juvenile detention camp.

While the warden is trying to snatch the suitcase from the boys, Stanley’s lawyer arrives and says that Stanley was found innocent. Stanley makes sure his friend Zero leaves with him. It is believed that the curse on the family is finally lifted since Stanley carries Zero to the mountain. Stanley’s father finally invents a cure for foot odor.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

The story is part magical and part mystery. “Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather”. “The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something”. The story is also historical. “He [Stanley] did not think they made cameras that small.” The motif in Holes begins with powerlessness and ends with heroism, exploration, and possibility. The conclusion is that good overcomes evil.

This book has many of the characteristics of good young adult fiction. It has an optimistic ending with Stanley and Hector accomplishing their goals. Most teenagers can relate to the emotions Stanley deals with such as fear and insecurity.

Stanley who has been unpopular all his life is happy that he is accepted at Camp Green Lake. “He was glad they called him Caveman. It meant they accepted him as a member of the group. He would have been glad even if they’d called him Barf Bag.” Stanley becomes a hero to one of the campers, Zero. The story reveals that Zero is actually Madame Zeroni’s grandson, Hector. Sachar ingeniously illustrates the connection between the two boys by integrating the story about Stanley’s great-great-grandfather and Madame Zeroni. Also, the two boys know the same song that has been passed to them for generations.

Egyptians used the onion as a symbol of life. The author uses the onion as a healing and life-saving symbol in his story. The yellow-spotted lizards do not bite Stanley and Hector because they have been eating onions.

Sachar weaves stories of three generations intricately with an exciting climax at the end of the story. The final chapter offers readers information about what happens after Stanley and Hector leave Camp Green Lake.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)

School Library Journal, 09/01/1998

Gr 5-8-Stanley Yelnats IV has been wrongly accused of stealing a famous baseball player's valued sneakers and is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention home where the boys dig holes, five feet deep by five feet across, in the miserable Texas heat. It's just one more piece of bad luck that's befallen Stanley's family for generations as a result of the infamous curse of Madame Zeroni. Overweight Stanley, his hands bloodied from digging, figures that at the end of his sentence, he'll "...either be in great physical condition or else dead." Overcome by the useless work and his own feelings of futility, fellow inmate Zero runs away into the arid, desolate surroundings and Stanley, acting on impulse, embarks on a risky mission to save him. He unwittingly lays Madame Zeroni's curse to rest, finds buried treasure, survives yellow-spotted lizards, and gains wisdom and inner strength from the quirky turns of fate. In the almost mystical progress of their ascent of the rock edifice known as "Big Thumb," they discover their own invaluable worth and unwavering friendship. Each of the boys is painted as a distinct individual through Sachar's deftly chosen words. The author's ability to knit Stanley and Zero's compelling story in and out of a history of intriguing ancestors is captivating. Stanley's wit, integrity, faith, and wistful innocence will charm readers. A multitude of colorful characters coupled with the skillful braiding of ethnic folklore, American legend, and contemporary issues is a brilliant achievement. There is no question, kids will love Holes.-Alison Follos, North Country School, Lake Placid, NY

BookList, 09/01/1998

Gr. 6-9. Middle-schooler Stanley Yelnats is only the latest in a long line of Yelnats to encounter bad luck, but Stanley's serving of the family curse is a doozie. Wrongfully convicted of stealing a baseball star's sneakers, Stanley is sentenced to six months in a juvenile-detention center, Camp Green Lake. "There is no lake at Camp Green Lake," where Stanley and his fellow campers (imagine the cast from your favorite prison movie, kid version) must dig one five-by-five hole in the dry lake bed every day, ostensibly building character but actually aiding the sicko warden in her search for buried treasure. Sachar's novel mixes comedy, hard-hitting realistic drama, and outrageous fable in a combination that is, at best, unsettling. The comic elements, especially the banter between the boys (part scared teens, part Cool Hand Luke wanna-bes) work well, and the adventure story surrounding Stanley's rescue of his black friend Zero, who attempts to escape, provides both high drama and moving human emotion. But the ending, in which realism gives way to fable, while undeniably clever, seems to belong in another book entirely, dulling the impact of all that has gone before. These mismatched parts don't add up to a coherent whole, but they do deliver a fair share of entertaining and sometimes compelling moments. ((Reviewed June 1 & 15, 1998)) -- Bill Ott. Booklist, published by the American Library Association.

Kirkus Reviews, 08/01/1998

Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.). Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories--but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles. Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. Copyright 2003, VNU Business Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Publishers Weekly, 07/27/1998

This wry and loopy novel about a camp for juvenile delinquents in a dry Texas desert (once the largest lake in the state) by the author of There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom and the Wayside School series has some serious undercurrents. Stanley Yelnats (appropriately enough for a story about reversals, the protagonist's name is a palindrome) gets sent to Camp Green Lake to do penance, "a camp for bad boys." Never mind that StanleySachar fills in all the holes, as he ties together seemingly disparate story threads to dispel ghosts from the past and give everyone their just deserts. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) didn't commit the crime he has been convicted of?he blames his bad luck on his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather." He digs five-foot-deep holes with all the other "bad" boys under the baleful direction of the Warden, perhaps the most terrifying female since Big Nurse. Just when it seems as though this is going to be a weird YA cross between One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Cool Hand Luke, the story takes off?along with Stanley, who flees camp after his buddy Zero?in a wholly unexpected direction to become a dazzling blend of social commentary, tall tale and magic realism. Readers (especially boys) will likely delight in the larger-than-life (truly Texas-style) manner in which

CONNECTIONS

Use fantasy books in the classroom to practice reading. Ask students to read and compare two books by Louis Sachar and create a Venn diagram to list similarities and differences.

Other similar books by Louis Sachar:

Small Steps 0385733143

Wayside School is Falling Down 0380731509

There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom 0394805720

If you liked this book, try:

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo 0763616052

Charlotte’s Webb by E. B. White 0064400557

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson 0064401847