Holes (Louis Sachar)

Holes
The Holes series, Book 1
Louis Sachar
Yearling
Fiction, MG Adventure/Mystery
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Stanley Yelnats didn't steal the shoes; they literally fell out of the sky in front of him. How was he supposed to know they belonged to a celebrity ball player, and had just been swiped from a homeless shelter where they were supposed to be auctioned for charity? Of course, the judge and prosecutor didn't believe him. Bad luck like this has plagued the Yelnats family for generations, ever since an ancestor stole a pig from the wrong old woman and brought a curse down on the whole line. Given the choice between traditional incarceration or 18 months at Camp Green Lake, he opted for the latter; Stanley always wanted to go to camp, though his parents could never afford it. Unfortunately, what he finds in the deep desert is nothing green, nor a hint of a lake. The warden's idea of reform is setting each boy in her custody to digging a hole every day, five feet wide by five feet deep, under the punishing Texas sun. In addition to the heat, there are rattlesnakes and venomous yellow-spotted lizards - plus no water for countless miles around, should any boy be foolish enough to run away. But there's more going on at Camp Green Lake than meets the eye, and Stanley inadvertently sticks his shovel straight into a century-old mystery.

REVIEW: This modern classic came out well after I passed the target age (and after I left high school), but it had such a devoted following I was always intrigued by it. In the tradition of the best literature for younger readers, Holes doesn't write down to its audience, tackling some thorny issues and meeting young readers where they are, without sugar coating life or the frustrations that come with so often being powerless over one's own life.
Since childhood, Stanley has learned to blame his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather" when things go wrong, even though he and his father don't really believe in curses or magic or the peculiar family story passed down through the generation to explain why the Yelnatses so often end up on the wrong side of luck; it's just something to say, a thing to point to when one's best efforts and intentions fail to convince the universe to give them a break... or is it? An air of magic realism hangs over the story, a slightly surreal edge, where one can't completely dismiss the idea of curses or miracles, for all that people are ultimately accountable for their own actions. Curse or not, there's no denying that Stanley's had a run of ill fortune to end up at Camp Green Lake, thrown in with other boys convicted of a variety of crimes. He makes some tentative friendships among his new bunkmates, even as he learns all too quickly about the hierarchies and the flow of power at the camp. He also has to deal with the grown-ups, particularly the casually cruel warden who paints her nails with rattlesnake venom and is as likely to lash out at the adults as the students, backed up by henchmen who may at first seem friendly but ultimately serve one master. During Stanley's monotonous days, the story flashes back to Stanley's ancestor and to the long-lost Texas town of Green Lake - back when there really was a lake - and a tale of bigotry and intolerance that eventually ties into one of the more infamous instances of the Yelnats "curse". It goes without saying that there is an ulterior motive to the unusual punishment doled out at the camp, and even without intending it, Stanley winds up in the thick of it... which puts him on the wrong side of the warden and others. Along the way, he deals with issues of racism and abuse of power and learning to take control of his own seemingly out of control life. It's a solid story with some interesting depth and complexity, well deserving its reputation.

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