Holes
1988
- newbery medal
- fluch
- amistad
- fiction
- homeless persons
- junge
- juvenile corrections
- familie
- treasure troves
- treasure-trove
The story
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 Yelnatses. 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 that Camp Green Lake isn't what it seems. Are the boys digging holes because the warden is looking for something? But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? It's up to Stanley to dig up the truth.
What it’s like
Dry, sun-scorched prose in a deadpan, wry voice, with short chapters that snap along like a shovel striking hardpan. The sensory world is the Texas desert: cracked earth, a white noon glare, grit in the teeth, and a dried lake bed that is only sand, scrub and cactus. The mood is dusty and quietly funny, with absurd touches and a steady undercurrent of unease, and the warmth of a comfort read beneath it. The pacing is brisk and tightly wound. Each chapter ends on a small hook, and two timelines gradually click together like puzzle pieces. A wrongly accused boy learns to stand up for himself and builds loyalty among a ragged group of outcasts, so the arc is one of growing courage and friendship. Intensity is moderate: heat, thirst, cruel adult authority, a snakebite and some sad backstory, but no gore and little on-page violence. It suits a lazy afternoon, a long-haul flight, or reading aloud, and readers who want a clever, funny adventure with a satisfying payoff, whether young or adult.
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