Holes

This is an extraordinary book by Louis Sachar. Let me tell you, it’s honestly one of the best books I’ve read in my life. It’s very intelligent; the whole plot and how things unravel in the end. I had so many “oh ja!” moments.

In a nutshell, Stanley Yelnats’s family is blanketed with bad luck...well, the men in his family that is. The whole reason runs back to his great, great grandfather who is thought to have dragged the bad luck into the family, after screwing up a deal with a gypsy. Now, after Stanley is falsely convicted of stealing a famous baseball star’s shoes at a charity auction, he gets sent to a camp for juvenile delinquents; “Camp Green Lake”.

This camp is very dry and hot, and it hasn’t rained in years. The boys are required to dig holes during the day in the heat as part of their character building whatsit. Which is not true; the warden is looking for something and is using the boys to dig it up for her.


 Well, the story is told at many different angles concerning camp Green Lake and how is came to be; i.e. from the past and present. Stanley tells his story and how it feels to dig holes in the heat and just the general living situation on the camp; the food, no water, the other boys, his new friendships, yellow spotted lizards, etc.  Well I don’t want to give everything away, but once you read it, everything will make sense.

Initially I watched the movie first when l was a lot younger and that’s how I actually got the name Ziggie. There’s a character in there called Zigzag, and let’s just say after the movie, people started calling me Zigzag. Now it’s just Ziggie, of course J. Anyhow, this book is witty, crafty, sad, funny and a general good read. Oh, also, the descriptions are pretty vivid.

Ziggie most definitely recommends this one!