Newbery Winner # 1 / Holes

I have heard wonderful things about Louis Sachar's novel Holes over the years, but I have never had the opportunity to read it for myself to discover if it was as good as everyone always claimed it was. In short, this novel met every one of my expectations.

Holes is the story of Stanley Yelnats, a young boy who has been sent to a camp designed to "straighten him up." While there, he and several other boys are forced to dig huge holes every day. While there, he eventually makes friends with the small group of boys in his group, while at the same time makes enemies with the camp's warden, a woman who, as you read the novel, has ulterior motives as to why these boys are forced to dig these giant holes. One of his friends, Zero, runs away from the camp, and Stanley goes after him. They survive in the desert, and at the same time, start putting together the warden's intentions. In the end, Stanley gets released from the camp, and the warden is discovered to be the evil slave-driver she really is.

This novel does an excellent job of balancing the main plot with several subplots that occured several years earlier in the same area. While reading the novel, readers become more and more engaged with the characters, wondering how the plots will eventually intertwine. When all is revealed, readers are extremely satisfied with Sachar's abilities to make it conclude in a way that works both for the characters as well as for the readers. Holes definitely lived up to all of the expectations I had prior to reading this Newbery Medal winning novel.

For this book, Sachar won numerous award in addition to the Newbery Medal, including the National Book Award, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, and the Christopher Award for Juvenile Fiction. Sachar has also written other young adult books, such as There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom and Dogs Don't Tell Jokes.


Nate Smith

Resources:

Sachar, L. (2000). Holes. New York: Yearling.