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Summary: A Teacher Reads "Holes"
Review: "Holes" is the story of a young man who manages to find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. His parents are supersticious and avoid facing the realities of life. Accused and convicted of a crime he did not commit, Stanley finds himself a "guest" of the state at Camp Green Lake where bad boys are turned into good boys by digging holes in a dried up lake bed. Despite his immaturity, Stanley does adapt life at Camp Green Lake and soon realizes there is more going on than the rehabilitation of bad boys. His curosity leads him into situations for which he is not prepared.This book has strong literary elements and is an excellent tool for teaching foreshadowing, flashback and symbolism. Reluctant readers enjoy this book with its short, interesting chapters. However, some teacher guidance is necessary.
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Summary: My idea of a good book
Review: "Holes" may be one of Louise Sachar's best books. It is about a boy named Stanley. Stanley is wrongly accused of stealing a famouse pair of shoes. He gets a choice of going to reform school...or Camp Greenlake. He picked camp greenlake because it sounded easier on him. However, there is no lake on Camp Greenlake. There isn't anything but a hot, hard desert. He has to dig a hole five feet wide and five feet deep every day. Stanley is told that digging is to build character. After a while, Stanley thinks they are looking for something. When the warden told him to report to her if he found anything valuable reinforced his idea...
The subplots in "Holes" may seem useless, but they all come together. So holes is many books, not just one. I think that this uniqueness is what makes holes a good book.
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Summary: Wonderful book for kids
Review: "Holes" really made me laugh. It was everything put together. Stanley just had back luck and at the end.. well you will just have to read the book.
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Summary: Worthy addition to any home library
Review: "Holes" starts off with an interesting premise, a boy is unfairly accused of a crime he didn't commit, and is sent away to a kind of children's detention home where the unusual and cruel punishment is that each child must dig one hole per day, out in the heat and the glaring sun.
I like the topic of this book a lot but it also has a deeper message, the importance of friendship and honesty. I liked it a lot but perhaps the ending was a bit far-fetched. Still it's a great read and I recommend it to anyone regardless of age.
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Summary: My review on the book "Holes"
Review: "Holes", the award winning novel by Louis Sachar is a great book for all ages. In this novel Sachar takes a part of his life background to make the setting. It is set in present day Texas in a deserted camp called "Camp Green Lake" that is out in the middle of no where. The main character Stanley is a boy who gets accused of stealing Clyde "Sweetfeet" Livingston's red shoes that Clyde donated to an orphanage. So at court he gets a choice of to go to jail or camp. Like any kid who came from a poor family, he chose camp. When Stanley arrives he befriends a boy named Zero, who can't read or write. They made a deal that if Zero digs Stanley's hole, Stanley will help him learn. From then on in the book they are introduced to friendship, betrayal, and adventure. Sachar's novel is a page turner from beginning to end. Once you read "Holes" you'll want to read it again and again or go watch the movie that just came out to a video rental near you.
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Summary: Stanley's Life Gets Dug Up
Review: "Holes," by Louis Sachar, was an amazing book. Normally I do not read young adult books, but I had heard so many good things about it, that I gave it a chance. Everything in the plot fit together perfect. Stanley Yelnats starts out as an uncontrollable teen-age kid. He learns a lesson in life by going to Camp Green Lake and having to dig holes 24/7. The holes had to be exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. After finding something in a hole, he becomes very suspicious to the fact that they are not just digging to build character. He dug deeper and tried to figure out what truly was going on. It all fits together and turns out to be a great story and alos had an awesome ending. It had a good case of foreshadowing also, which involved a suitcase with his name on it. The book was so exciting and I never wanted to put it down because of the action-packed adventure that was involved in it. I strongly suggest anyone who wants to read a well-written young adult book to read this one. The book will not leave you unsatisfied. It has everything it needs to leave the audience in awe.
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Summary: Bad boys+holes=good boys
Review: "If you take a Bad boy and put him in the hot sun to dig holes it will turn him into a good boy" is the motto at camp Greenlake. Stanly Ylnats family has bad luck becasue of his no good dirty pig stealing great great grandfather. He is sent to camp Greenlake for "stealing" a pair of shoes when he is actually inocent. He is sent to camp Greenleake to teach him a lesso and when he comes out he is suppose to be a good boy, but when he comes back he is a Millionare.
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Summary: Holes
Review: "There is no Lake at Camp Green Lake" Camp Green Lake is a boys detention center in Texas. Stanley Yelnats is an inmate rongly accused of stealing a pair of five thousand dollar shows. The boys at Camp Green Lake dig holes five feet wide and five fet deep until their stay is over. There are no fences or boundaries at Camp Green Lake. There doesn't need to be any. Camp Green Lake is the only place that has water for one hundred miles. But at the bottom lie a secret that could save Stanley from his family curse, and learn the secret of mysterious boy named Zero. Holes is a novel that mixes a realistic fiction theme and a magic twist. Children will be captivated by this smart, surprising and darkly humorous mystery tale.
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Summary: Holes
Review: "You are to dig one hole each day, including Saturdays and Sundays. Each hole must be five feet deep and five feet across in every direction." This is what the hero of Holes, Stanley Yelnants, is told when he arrives at Camp Green Lake. There is no lake at the camp, nor has there been for over 100 years.
Louis Sacher, author of Sideways Stories From Wayside School and There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom, really has a great book here. Our hero Stanley winds up going to this "camp" after he is wrongly accused of stealing the sneakers of baseball great, Clyde Livingston. At Green Lake, Stanley wakes early, eats, and then spends the rest of his day digging a hole in the middle of a desert wasteland that once was a lake and town.
As Stanley gets used to the camp's schedule, he meets his fellow campers. There's X-Ray, Zigzag, Armpit, but most of all Zero, who Stanley will have a special bond with. Of course those aren't their real names, just nicknames given to every camper at Green Lake (Stanley's is Caveman).
The present day Camp Green Lake is a place of harsh treatment, fate, and mystery. The longer Stanley stays at the camp, the more he sees that there is more than just "building character" in the holes he digs. The camp's warden, a venomous, angry person, is looking for something. But what? That's just part of the mystery in this book.
There are two parts in this book that take place in the past. One is when Stanley's ancestor seeks the help of Madame Zeroni and brings a curse upon his family. The other is in the past Camp Green Lake, 100 years ago.
Holes is a wonderfully imaginative book with fate obviously playing with, and against, the character's lives.
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Summary: Holes book review
Review: "You may go to jail, or you may go to Camp Green Lake," the judge said to Stanley Yelnats, who was accused of stealing the famous basketball player, Clyde Livingston's shoes. Stanley told the judge "...the sneakers fell from the sky." What really happened though was that, "They hadn't exactly fallen from the sky. He had just walked out from under a freeway overpass when the shoe hit him on the head." Stanley chose to go to camp.
The camp was called Camp Green Lake, which is ironic because the first line of the book reads, "There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas." Stanley had to a dig hole everyday. The hole had to be as deep and wide as the five foot shovel he used. The belief was, "If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." The Warden, though, had another purpose for having the children dig, she was looking for something.
While Stanley was there he met some new friends for example Zero, X-ray, Zigzag, Magnet, and he was given the nickname Caveman. Throughout his life Stanley was picked on and this story is about the struggle of him becoming self confident. He had always been teased and blames his misfortunes on the family curse caused by his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!" In the end Stanley is a hero for saving his friend and family from the curse. In addition he learns about true friendship, and solves the mystery.
We enjoyed this Newbury Honor book. Its humor and irony keep the pages turning. This wonderful novel appeal to all ages, while mature readers will find it to be entreating and educational, younger students will connect with the characters and learn life lessons from it. We highly recommend this wonderful novel that contains laughter and suspense all wrapped up in one.
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