Holes
by Louis Sachar
Young-Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Middle-Grade, Classics, Realistic-Fiction, School
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 Yelnats. 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.
Recommendations from Common Sense Media
Age Recommendation: 10+
What Parents Need to Know:
Parents need to know that Louis Sachar‘s Holes is a moving, action-packed, and sometimes violent mystery that won the Newbery Medal. It’s about a boy named Stanley, who’s falsely accused of a crime and sent to a juvenile detention center in the middle of a desert in Texas. The story will excite young readers’ sense of justice, as Stanley is treated most unfairly. In the flashback passages, Katherine, a White woman, loves Sam, a Black man, and they’re victims of racist violence. There’s threatened as well as real violence in the present-day parts of the book, including fistfights, drawn guns, attacks with shovels, and danger of poisoning. This is a more intense book than many novels for this age group, as some adults in the book treat youngsters as slaves. However, there are some funny moments, and the mysterious ways that past and present connect in the book are engaging at just the right grade level. The book was adapted for a 2003 movie, and there’s a good audiobook version read by Kerry Beyer.
Educational Value: 1/5
Though the past and present stories in Holes are fictional, they teach readers about the history of racism in the United States. Some information about desert wildlife.
Positive Messages: 2/5
“When you spend your whole life living in a hole, the only way you can go is up.”
Positive Role Models: 3/5
Stanley is kind of a nerdy misfit who weighs more than others in his peer group. He’s resourceful and adaptable when he needs to be, and his problem-solving abilities help him survive Camp Green Lake. In the “historical” parts of the story, Katherine Barlow, who’s White, loves Sam, who’s Black, despite the racism in her community.
Violence & Scariness: 3/5
Residents of the camp have fistfights and use shovels as weapons. Guards carry guns. In a flashback, a woman is sexually assaulted by the sheriff, and a racist mob murders a Black man for kissing a White woman. A woman later shoots the sheriff.
Sex, Romance & Nudity: 1/5
Sam and Katherine kiss.
Language: n/a
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Products & Purchases: n/a
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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking: 1/5
In a flashback, the sheriff of Green Lake sits at his desk drinking whiskey. He tells Katherine, “I always get drunk before a hanging.”
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