Only one person is responsible for Stanley Yelnats going to Camp Green Lake, himself. Or at least that's what the camp counselor tells him. But Stanley, accused of stealing the used sneakers of baseball champion Clyde Livingston, is innocent. He knows that himself being at the camp (a juvenile detention center for boys), is just part of the curse that has plagued his family for generations. His bad luck is the fault of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. But that's another story.
And so Stanley begins his routine at the camp. Along with the other boys in the D tent - Zero, X-Ray, Armpit, Squid, Magnet, and Zigzag - Stanley gets up every day before dawn to dig a hole in the desert that's five feet in every direction. Though the digging is supposed to be character-building, the counselors let the boys know that the Warden wants to be alerted if anyone digs up anything "interesting." A fossil that Stanley finds doesn't qualify, but a gold-colored tube with the initials KB does. With each hole he digs, Stanley comes closer to the truth that KB stands for Kissin' Kate Barlow, a schoolteacher whose love for an onion seller turned her into an Outlaw who roamed the area of Camp Green Lake when there was still a lake there.
Holes is a great book which is very witty and page turning. You just want to keep on reading it.
Star rating: 4/5
Age range: 10 years old and up.
By George Anyon of Saint Kentigern school, Auckland.
Do you like Trivia games and quizzes? Here's a quiz based on the book Holes. It contains links to more trivia and word games.
