Holes by Louis Sachar / Newberry Medal Award

"Holes" by Louis Sachar is a great book about boys detained at a work camp. Each boy is "serving time" for a different discipline problem. The boys must dig holes in the hot, hot sun. This camp is in Texas. It's called Camp Green Lake. The grownups, I think, are the ones who should dig the holes. They have no idea how to discipline these young people. This book is so on target because society still doesn't know how to deal with the misbehavior of children or teens. In other words, Camp Green Lake is hell on earth for these boys.


I loved the names of the boys. There are Armpit, X-Ray, Magnet, Squid, Zigzag and Stanley. My favorite guy is Zero. Zero and his mother had been homeless. Then, his mother abandoned him. He becomes close friends with Stanley especially when Stanley begins to teach him to read and write words. Zero isn't stupid. Zero believes there are fifty-two letters in the alphabet not twenty-six. Why? Because of the capital and the small letters counted together come to fifty-two. That gives you an idea of how Zero thinks about the world around him.

Well, I have to bring up the ugly, yucky, lizards. There are plenty of lizards out at the holes. These lizards have red eyes, black teeth and a white tongue. Oh, these creepy critters are awful. The lizards are one of the unwanted adventures the boys experience along with hearing the painful life story of Kate Barlow. She ruined her life when Sam kissed her. It didn't matter if she kissed Sam. The problem was he kissed her. There is also the fact that the boys are digging to find something very important under all that dirt. Those shovels aren't just to dig out the hard core of their hearts and heads. Those shovels are suppose to dig up "treasure."

This book made me think a lot about the right and wrong way to build character in children and myself. The Warden, Mr. Pendanski and Mr. Sir don't always prove good role models. At times, Stanley, Zero and the others had more sense than the grownups.

I also thought about friendship. Friendship involves sacrifice. Sacrifice isn't easy nor is it awarded all the time. The gift gained is a closer bond of trust as friends. Well, I'm dusty with dirt. I'm going to take a shower and pray for rain.

By the way, the boys are different in a very visible way. Louis Sachar plays down the importance of what we look like by not revealing the differences until the middle of the book. By then, the differences didn't matter to me. I just knew I liked these boys. I wanted the years and years of drought to end. I wanted Camp Green Lake to be investigated and shut down. I wanted all the boys to experience a better life.http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/2008/11/2009-young-adult-book