holes short book review

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By Matt Berman , based on child development research. How do we rate?

Exciting mystery is often intense but occasionally funny.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Louis Sachar's Holes is a moving, action-packed, and sometimes violent mystery that won the Newbery Medal. It's about a boy named Stanley, who's falsely accused of a crime and sent to a juvenile detention center in the middle of a desert in Texas. The story will excite young readers'…

Why Age 10+?

Residents of the camp have fistfights and use shovels as weapons. Guards carry g

In a flashback, the sheriff of Green Lake sits at his desk drinking whiskey. He

Sam and Katherine kiss.

Any Positive Content?

Stanley is kind of a nerdy misfit who weighs more than others in his peer group.

"When you spend your whole life living in a hole, the only way you can go is up.

Though the past and present stories in Holes are fictional, they teach readers a

Violence & Scariness

Residents of the camp have fistfights and use shovels as weapons. Guards carry guns. In a flashback, a woman is sexually assaulted by the sheriff, and a racist mob murders a Black man for kissing a White woman. A woman later shoots the sheriff.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

In a flashback, the sheriff of Green Lake sits at his desk drinking whiskey. He tells Katherine, "I always get drunk before a hanging."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

Stanley is kind of a nerdy misfit who weighs more than others in his peer group. He's resourceful and adaptable when he needs to be, and his problem-solving abilities help him survive Camp Green Lake. In the "historical" parts of the story, Katherine Barlow, who's White, loves Sam, who's Black, despite the racism in her community.

Positive Messages

"When you spend your whole life living in a hole, the only way you can go is up."

Educational Value

Though the past and present stories in Holes are fictional, they teach readers about the history of racism in the United States. Some information about desert wildlife.

Parents need to know that Louis Sachar 's Holes is a moving, action-packed, and sometimes violent mystery that won the Newbery Medal. It's about a boy named Stanley, who's falsely accused of a crime and sent to a juvenile detention center in the middle of a desert in Texas. The story will excite young readers' sense of justice, as Stanley is treated most unfairly. In the flashback passages, Katherine, a White woman, loves Sam, a Black man, and they're victims of racist violence. There's threatened as well as real violence in the present-day parts of the book, including fistfights, drawn guns, attacks with shovels, and danger of poisoning. This is a more intense book than many novels for this age group, as some adults in the book treat youngsters as slaves. However, there are some funny moments, and the mysterious ways that past and present connect in the book are engaging at just the right grade level. The book was adapted for a 2003 movie , and there's a good audiobook version read by Kerry Beyer.

Where to Read

Parent and kid reviews.

• Parents say (23)
• Kids say (116)

Based on 23 parent reviews

Too dark for younger kids

Good book for 5th graders and up, what's the story.

In HOLES, Stanley Yelnats, falsely convicted of stealing a celebrity's sneakers, is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center in the middle of the desert, where each inmate is required to dig a large hole every day. The seasoned prisoners are rough and mean, and the conditions are dreadful, especially compared with the loving home that Stanley has known. As Stanley gets to know the other boys and the grueling routine, he also realizes there's a mystery behind this strange punishment that's related to a treasure and even to the supposed curse on Stanley's family dating back to his "dirty-rotten-pig-stealing" great-grandfather. The keys to the mystery have to do with a long-gone outlaw named Kate Barlow, a young boy called Zero, a greedy warden with rattlesnake venom nail polish, and whatever is buried in the parched desert of Green Lake.

Is It Any Good?

As Louis Sachar's edgy plot weaves between intersecting stories, past and present, the author creates a unique mystery, full of twists and danger. This novel includes violence and cruelty, and it may be somewhat intense for some young readers. However, there are funny moments, too, and mystery lovers will be fascinated as the story unfolds. It's also a great book for parents and teachers to introduce simple concepts of literary analysis and use of language, as the word "holes" has multiple meanings in the book.

This Newbery winner is often a hit with fourth and fifth grade readers who are ready for something that's intellectually a little bit challenging, as well as a fair bit darker than most novels for their grade level.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Stanley survives Camp Green Lake in Holes . How did his life before the camp prepare him for this experience?

How do Stanley and Zero help each other? How do their different abilities and backgrounds make them useful to each other?

Have you seen the movie of Holes ? How is the film different from the book?

Book Details

• Author : Louis Sachar
• Genre : Adventure
• Topics : Adventures , Friendship , Great Boy Role Models
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication date : May 9, 2000
• Publisher's recommended age(s) : 9 - 12
• Number of pages : 233
• Available on : Paperback, Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
• Award : Newbery Medal and Honors
• Last updated : May 17, 2021

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Summary and Reviews of Holes by Louis Sachar

Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio

• Critics' Consensus:
• Readers' Rating:
• First Published:
• Sep 1, 1998, 233 pages
• May 2000, 233 pages
• Literary Fiction
• Young Adults
• 1980s & '90s
• 1st in Series
• Jewish Authors
• Publication Information
• Write a Review
• Buy This Book

About This Book

• Book Club Questions

Book Summary

Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption. Ages 10+

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 Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn't take long for Stanley to realize there's more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

Stanley Yelnats was the only passenger on the bus, not counting the driver or the guard. The guard sat next to the driver with his seat turned around facing Stanley. A rifle lay across his lap. Stanley was sitting about ten rows back, handcuffed to his armrest. His backpack lay on the seat next to him. It contained his toothbrush, toothpaste, and a box of stationary his mother had given him. He’d promised to write to her at least once a week. He looked out the window, although there wasn’t much to see—mostly fields of hay and cotton. He was on a long bus ride to nowhere. The bus wasn’t air-conditioned, and the hot heavy air was almost as stifling as the handcuffs. Stanley and his parents had tried to pretend that he was just going away to camp for a while, just like rich kids do. When Stanley was younger he ...

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Holes, by Louis Sachar | Book Review

Book Review of  Holes The Children’s Book Review

Written by Louis Sachar

Ages 9+ | 272 Pages

Publisher: Scholastic (1998) | ISBN-13: 9780374312640

What to Expect: Mystery and Adventure

Are you ready for adventure? Look no further than this award-winning modern classic!  Holes  is a captivating story of curses, crime, and redemption that keeps readers on the edge.

Follow Stanley Yelnats as he finds himself at Camp Green Lake, a place filled with endless days of digging holes in the hope of character improvement. But as he uncovers the truth about the lake’s past, he realizes he’s on a mission to uncover an even darker secret. With its witty humor and skillful storytelling, this jigsaw puzzle of a novel will keep readers on their toes until the very last page.

The blend of humor and mystery, with scenes happening both in the past and present, leaves readers questioning everything. An unlucky and cursed protagonist, Stanley Yelnats’s character development throughout the novel is incredible, as the cylindrical holes of Camp Green Lake turn out to be anything but mere character-building activities.

Louis Sachar, the author of the magnificent novel  Holes , dedicated a year and a half of his life to crafting this unforgettable story. During the creative process, Sachar displayed immense commitment and attention to detail as he rewrote the story not once or twice but a total of five times to ensure perfection. Interestingly, the novel’s protagonist, Stanley, unwittingly enters Camp Green Lake for precisely the same period it took Sachar to create this fan-favorite novel.

It is worth noting that Sachar transitioned from a successful career as a lawyer to becoming a highly acclaimed writer, receiving accolades that include the distinguished Newbery and National Book Awards. 

An intelligent story that proves adventure exists in the most unexpected of places, kids will happily embark on the must-read, unforgettable literary journey that is  Holes !

Buy the Book

About the author.

Louis Sachar was born in New York. He was inspired to write children’s books after working as a teacher’s aide to gain extra credit. After graduation he worked in a sweater warehouse in Connecticut and wrote at night. He was soon fired from that job and moved onto law school where in his first week of study Sideways Stories From Wayside School was published.

In 2000 Louis Sacher wrote Holes which became both an instant classic and a film starring Sigourney Weaver. Holes was his first book to be published in the UK and continues to prove popular among younger readers. Once Louis Sachar begins writing a new book he refuses to talk to anyone until it is finished and entry to his office is barred apart from his two dogs.

Bianca Schulze reviewed  Holes . Discover more books like  Holes  by reading our reviews and articles tagged with Mystery and Adventures .

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Bianca Schulze is the founder of The Children’s Book Review. She is a reader, reviewer, mother and children’s book lover. She also has a decade’s worth of experience working with children in the great outdoors. Combined with her love of books and experience as a children’s specialist bookseller, the goal is to share her passion for children’s literature to grow readers. Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, she now lives with her husband and three children near Boulder, Colorado.

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A Journey of Words

Book review: holes, holes by louis sachar, my rating: 4.5 / 5 genre: middle grade fiction.

This is the story about 2 curses that come together in a place called Camp Green Lake, where there is no lake. Teenage boys are sent there for rehabilitation in the form of digging a hole the depth and width of their shovel every day. The camp’s newest inmate, Stanley Yelnats, quickly realizes there’s more to the hole-digging than character-building, but can he dig up the truth?

I like this book so much. I remember watching this movie about a year after it first came out, going into it without any clue what it was about. I was an adult, so not exactly the age group that the book was intended for, but I’ve never had a problem watching or reading things for a younger audience. I enjoyed the movie, and still do to this day. A few years after watching the movie, I found the book at a garage sale or thrift store or something like that, and picked it up. I’ve read it a few times, so this was a re-read, at least 10 years since the previous times I read it.

The way the author brought basically three different stories together, and in a really interesting and even believable way is so fun to follow along with. This book takes the idea of coincidence in storytelling (which is normally better to avoid) and embraces it to the point of being so well connected, you’re excited to see how the coincidences come together.

The kids are just trying to get by in conditions that definitely make it clear that the justice system has failed them, but they still have heart. The adults at the camp are apparently all terrible people, right down to the counselors who aren’t in the story much, which I think is a little unrealistic.

Since I saw the movie before reading the book, and have watched the movie several times now, of course I pictured the characters as they were portrayed in the movie, but I like the casting, so this isn’t a problem for me. There are some differences in the movie, a few things added to the movie, and of course some extra details removed, but overall, it is incredibly similar. My biggest issue with the book is that it is wrapped up awkwardly. There’s not a lot of closure. The movie did this better (even if a slight bit less realistically).

Overall, Holes is a fun, edgy book for kids approximately 8-12 years of age, but really can be appreciated by older people as well. The culmination of the different storylines in the latter half of the book is a lot of fun to discover, and I recommend it for all.

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2 thoughts on “ book review: holes ”.

I’ve heard some awesome things about Holes but I’ve never taken the time to read it. I didn’t know there was a movie? I’ll have to look that up! Thanks for sharing your review! 🙂

They are both quite good! Louis Sachar wrote the screenplay for the movie, so it’s no surprise it stayed so close to the book. The movie stars Shia LaBeouf in his Disney days, and has an overall great cast. I hope you enjoy it!

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by Louis Sachar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998

Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...

Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar ( Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger , 1995, etc.).

Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998

ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5

Page Count: 233

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000

CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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More by Louis Sachar

BOOK REVIEW

by Louis Sachar ; illustrated by Tim Heitz

by Louis Sachar

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL

From the school for good and evil series , vol. 1.

by Soman Chainani ; illustrated by Iacopo Bruno ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2013

Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.

Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.

Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and  her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).

Pub Date: May 14, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2

Page Count: 496

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013

CHILDREN'S SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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THE SHERLOCK SOCIETY

From the sherlock society series , vol. 1.

by James Ponti ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2024

An environmental mystery featuring lots of clever detecting, a bit of danger, and real felonies to investigate.

Toxic waste dumped in the Everglades gives a quartet of middle school sleuths their first case.

Leading Carl Hiaasen fans over familiar ground, Ponti pitches 12-year-old Alex Sherlock and his 13-year-old sister, Zoe, with school friends Lina and Yadi as sidekicks, into a summer caper. It all begins with the hunt for a supposed fortune buried decades ago by Al Capone, culminates in a narrow escape from an exploding yacht, and ultimately exposes a smooth-talking bad actor shady enough to bring in even federal authorities. As the kids’ live-in Grandpa, a retired investigative reporter, delivers pointers on how to conduct interviews and sift evidence while grandly driving them around South Florida in his classic Cadillac, Roberta, the budding detectives display sharp wits, eyes, and negotiating skills. The last come in particularly useful when they’re dealing with their lawyer…who’s also their mom. Both the plot and the chain of evidence take logical courses, and since Dad is a marine biologist and Lina’s a recent transplant from Wyoming, Ponti is able to use their dialogue to highlight the local culture and larger ecological issues. Main characters present white, apart from tech wiz Yadi, who is cued Latine.

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024

ISBN: 9781665932530

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Aladdin

Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER

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Holes by Louis sachar - review

I would call this book ... weird. It's really unusual, but it's amazing at the same time!

Stanley Yelnats has been sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center for boys. But the boys at Camp Green Lake have to do an unusual thing. Every day they have to dig a hole, five feet deep and five feet wide. Camp Green Lake calls the place they dig a lake, but really it's all dried up. It's enormous, and it's the perfect, tiring surface for digging holes.

The first hole's the worst. No, the second. Actually, the third.

Every day it seems to get tougher. But soon, that stops. Stanley gets used to it, and although the days are swelteringly hot, and their water bottles are normally empty, the holes start to get easier.

He's made friends. Pretty much, anyway. Stanley's known as Caveman. Then there's Armpit, X-Ray, Magnet, Squid, Zigzag and finally Zero. Odd, mysterious, Zero. He hardly ever talks. Stanley's desperate to figure him out. And soon enough, he gets the chance. Stanley get Zero are stuck together. On the verge of death.

I would give this book 9/10 and strongly recommend it for anyone who's looking for something a little different. It's full of adventure and questions and had me up reading for most of the night, desperate to find out what happens. So please, please read this book!

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by Louis Sachar

W hen 14-year-old Stanley Yelnats IV is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and shipped off to Camp Green Lake—a juvenile detention center where teenage boys “build character” by digging a new hole 5 ft. deep and 5 ft. wide every day—he blames his bad luck on a family curse that began with his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather.” But not everything is as it seems at Camp Green Lake, where the truth about Stanley’s family’s past, as well as notorious outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow’s connection to the camp, lies buried with what the warden is really searching for in the brutal Texas desert. In this acclaimed best seller, winner of a Newbery Medal and National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and adapted into a beloved 2003 movie, Louis Sachar spins a page-turning tale of suspense, friendship, love and adventure that offers a nuanced consideration of injustice and incarceration. A sensation on the New York Times best-seller list for more than 150 weeks, the 1998 novel has sold millions of copies worldwide. —Megan McCluskey

Buy Now: Holes on Bookshop | Amazon

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88 pages • 2 hours read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Part 1, Chapters 1-3

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Part 1, Chapters 25-28

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Summary and Study Guide

Louis Sachar’s 1998 children’s mystery novel, Holes , tells the story of Stanley Yelnats , a 14-year-old boy accused of stealing a pair of shoes. A judge sentences him to 18 months in a camp, where a tyrannical warden has the boys digging five-foot by five-foot holes that appear random. However, their activity hints at the town’s complicated past and an outlaw’s lost treasure. Holes was awarded the 1998 National Book Award and the 1999 Newbery Medal and was adapted into a film by Disney. The novel explores themes of Fate Versus Free Will , The Importance of Friendship , and The Connection Between Past and the Present .

Content warning : The guide contains discussions of child abuse and anti-Black racism that are present in the source text.

Plot Summary

Stanley Yelnats IV is a 14-year-old boy whose family claims it is cursed due to his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather” (8). This curse is responsible for him being wrongfully convicted for stealing a pair of tennis shoes once owned by a famous athlete. Although Stanley tells the truth about how the shoes fell out of the sky and hit him in the head, the judge doesn’t believe him and sends him to a juvenile detention facility called Camp Green Lake.

When Stanley arrives at Camp Green Lake, he learns that the boys at the detention center must dig a new hole five feet wide and five feet deep every day. According to the Warden , who oversees the facility, this builds character. The boys are instructed to pay careful attention while digging; they will be rewarded for bringing the Warden anything interesting.

From here, the story flashes back to the 19th century, to the time of Stanley’s grandfather Elya Yelnats. Elya is desperately in love with a woman named Myra, but she has also attracted the attention of an older pig farmer, Igor Barkov. He has offered Myra’s father his heaviest pig in exchange for permission to marry Myra.

Elya thinks that Myra deserves better. He goes to his friend Madame Zeroni, who warns him that Myra is not very intelligent. However, Elya is in love and does not listen to Madame Zeroni. She agrees to help him since she sees that Elya is in love. Madame Zeroni gives him a tiny piglet and tells him that if he climbs the mountain with the piglet every day and lets the pig drink from the spring while singing to it, the pig will soon be bigger than Igor’s. Once this happens, he must promise to carry Madame Zeroni to the top of the mountain so that she can drink from the spring. If he doesn’t take Madame Zeroni, then he and his family will be doomed.

Elya promises and takes the piglet every morning up the mountain. He almost wins Myra’s hand, but his and Igor’s pigs end up being the same size. Myra is given the choice, but she cannot choose. Instead, she directs them to guess the number she is thinking of, but Elya has had enough. In his frustration, he forgets his promise to Madame Zeroni and moves to America. He only realizes his mistake while ocean-bound on the ship. Madame Zeroni’s curse follows him, affecting his entire family. The song he sang to the pig becomes a family lullaby.

The story moves to the story of Kissin’ Kate Barlow, which also takes place in the 19th century, 110 years before the novel’s present day. Kate, a local teacher, falls in love with a local Black onion seller, Sam. When she is seen kissing Sam, the town of Green Lake is in an uproar. Sam is arrested and a mob burns down the schoolhouse.

Kate and Sam try to cross the lake to escape, but Trout (a man whom Kate rejected) intercepts them and sinks the boat. Trout shoots Sam and rescues Kate against her will. After Sam dies, no rain falls on the town again.

Kate kills the sheriff and then becomes an outlaw who leaves a trademark lipstick kiss on those she robs. She robs Stanley’s great-grandfather, but instead of killing him, she leaves him in the desert where he is eventually rescued. Stanley later says he survived because of God’s thumb, but nobody knows what he meant. Stanley is taken to the hospital, where he meets and falls in love with a nurse, whom he marries.

Twenty years later, Kate goes back to Green Lake and stays in a little cabin, but Trout and his wife, who are broke and desperate for money, intercept her. They try to force her to tell them where she keeps her stolen treasure, but she is bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard and dies taunting them.

Back at present-day Camp Green Lake, the Warden is clearly looking for something while the boys dig holes. During one dig, Stanley finds a tube of lipstick that once belonged to Kate Barlow. He gives it to X-Ray , the leader of Group D, who convinces Stanley that he needs it more. The Warden is excited by the discovery. They sift through X-Ray’s hole, mistakenly believing this is where the lipstick was found.

Meanwhile, Stanley befriends a quiet boy nicknamed Zero . Stanley agrees to teach Zero how to read, and Zero offers to dig part of Stanley’s hole every day so Stanley has energy to teach. One day, the boys start to fight because of Zero and Stanley’s arrangement. Zero protects Stanley and then refuses to dig anymore. He hits the counselor Mr. Pendanski with his shovel and runs away. The Warden decides to let him die in the desert. After a few days, Stanley resolves to go after Zero. He finds Zero and notices a mountain that looks like a thumb. He remembers that his great-grandfather said he was saved by God’s thumb, so they decide to climb the nearby mountain instead of returning to camp. Zero isn’t feeling well, so Stanley carries him up most of the mountain. He gives him water that they find at the top, breaking the curse that Madame Zeroni put on Elya Yelnats. Stanley also finds a field of onions; he and Zero eat them for days to recover. While on the mountain, Stanley realizes that the hole where he found the lipstick tube might be where Kissin’ Kate Barlow’s treasure is buried. They descend the mountain and return to the hole, where they uncover a suitcase. The Warden tries to take it, but deadly yellow-spotted lizards appear, forcing her to back away.

The onions make Stanley and Zero invulnerable to the lizards, and they stay in the hole overnight. In the morning, an attorney demands Stanley’s release. Stanley and Zero get up, and the yellow-spotted lizards don’t bite them. The Warden tries to get the suitcase, but Zero tells her it belongs to Stanley: On the suitcase is the name STANLEY YELNATS. The attorney takes Stanley and Zero (whose records were erased when they thought he was dead) out of Green Lake and back to Stanley’s family. They open the suitcase and discover Kate’s treasure. The family’s fortunes turn around, and it rains in the city once again.

The book ends with a glimpse into Stanley and Zero’s lives a year and a half later. Stanley’s dad’s invention takes off, and he has a Super Bowl ad for their foot deodorizer. Zero reunites with his mother, who abandoned him when he was a young boy.

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Tuesday 18 June 2019

Review: holes.

Books of Brilliance

The latest book reviews and book news, holes: book review.

Young adult novel Holes by Louis Sachar

Some novels become synonymous with our childhood. There are a bunch of different novels that most of us have grown up with. And the book review today will be for the classic novel Holes by Louis Sachar. Find out why this classic novel is worth reading or rereading if you have already read it!

Holes: Summary

Stanley Yalnets is sent to a juvenile detention camp called Camp Green Lake for stealing a pair of shoes. The shoes fell out of the sky and Stanley figured that the shoes would be useful to his dad who works with shoes. Little did he know that those shoes belonged to a celebrity and he would be accused of stealing them.

Just like everything else bad that has happened to the Yalnets, Stanley blames the bad luck on his great-great-grandfather who was cursed for not keeping his end of the deal. Now, Stanley has to dig holes in the desert with other juveniles. 

Digging holes is supposed to straighten out the kids that were sent to Camp Green Lake. But Stanley figures out that the Warden Ms. Walker is searching for something. Why else would they want them to turn in anything they find that is “interesting.”

Stanley makes some friends and learns of the hierarchy in place at the camp. He ends up befriending Zero who “loves to dig holes.” Their friendship grows and brews a storm that turns the camp upside down.

It is up to Stanley to make everything right but with little food and water, what can he possibly do? Stanley has put together enough information and has an idea of what the Warden is searching for and plans to use that to escape once and for all. 

Holes: Commentary

This is one of those novels that I read after I saw the movie and enjoyed both formats. Not many books turn into classic movies and you can tell how much effort was put into the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie then you are missing out.

Putting the movie aside, the novel itself is written perfectly for the young adult audience. Even with adult topics, Sachar does a great job of translating it for his geared audience. And not only that, he also creates the children versus adult narrative without being aggressive as future dystopian novels .

I do regret that I didn’t get to read this novel during my teenage years. It would have easily been a book that I enjoyed and would look for similar books as a result. Now this novel is required reading in some schools which is a smart move. I can’t choose a better novel to make teenagers fall in love with reading than this.

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Your review of Holes reminded me how So many treasures await in Newberry books. Have you discovered Gary D. Schmidt? I recently found his work and couldn’t stop…this is my favorite: https://regspittle.com/2021/11/17/for-this-kid-the-worst-bullies-are-at-home/ Thanks for your post and reminder, Reg

I would hope that schools are making ‘required reading’ decisions based on what would inspire a love of reading for students. When I went to school, decades ago, we were forced to read the driest most painful, literary material available. I have always loved reading – but my school experience tried very hard to destroy that love.

I loved holes. I think I also saw the film before reading the book and I enjoyed both. It was great

I found this to be an excellent book.

I loved this book! The entire premise was creative.

Agree! A fresh plot

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I never heard of it but I’ll put it on my list. We didn’t used to read very good books at school. The only decent one I read was The Grapes Of Wrath from John Steinbeck.

I feel obliged to point out you spelt his surname wrong throughout… the whole point of his name is that it’s a palindrome.

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by Louis Sachar

• Holes Summary

Stanley Yelnats IV is an overweight teenage boy from a poor family, whose future fortune depends on his inventor father discovering the secret to curing bad foot odor. The Yelnats family is said to be cursed: Stanley's great-great-grandfather did not honor a promise he made to an old woman with magical powers, and misfortune has followed him and his descendants ever since. Stanley is unlucky enough to be wrongly accused of stealing baseball star Clyde "Sweet Feet" Livingston's shoes, and instead of being locked up in prison, he is sent to Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention and correction facility in the middle of the desert.

After a long and lonely bus ride, Stanley arrives at the camp and meets the lazy and nasty Mr. Sir , one of the camp supervisors. He is warned to watch out for Warden Walker. Stanley also meets Mr. Pendanski , another camp supervisor. He is assigned to Tent D, where he befriends his tent mates and slowly learns the ropes of surviving in the harsh conditions of the camp: terrible food, limited shower time, an uncomfortable bed. Stanley becomes particularly good friends with a small but tough boy named Zero , whom we later discover is Hector Zeroni, a descendant of the woman who cursed the Yelnats family.

Stanley and the other boys are forced to dig a hole every day, five feet deep and five feet wide. The work is exhausting, especially in the shadeless heat of the day, and potentially dangerous: the lake is populated by yellow-spotted lizards, whose venom is strong enough to kill a person. The boys are told that the digging will teach them to work hard, and eventually facilitate their rehabilitation into society, but in reality, the Warden has a hidden agenda. She wants to find the treasure stolen and hidden by infamous bandit Kate Barlow.

The sad story of Kate Barlow is revealed later in the novel, although we learn early on that she is the one responsible for robbing Stanley Yelnats' great-grandfather of his stock market fortune and plunging the family into financial difficulties. Shortly before that time, when Green Lake was still full of water, Katherine Barlow was a beautiful young schoolteacher who fell in love with a black man - an impossible match, given the racism of the era. Her lover Sam was killed after they were caught kissing, and Kate became mad with grief, going on a killing spree that started with the sheriff and expanded into a career of banditry and murder. She earned the nickname "Kissing Kate" for kissing each of her victims with a full mouth of lipstick, leaving the mark of her lips on their skin. Legend has it that she left a great treasure buried somewhere in the desert before she committed suicide.

In Camp Green Lake, Stanley begins to teach Zero how to read. Zero eventually runs away from the camp, and a couple of days later Stanley steals the water truck and drives a short way before crashing the truck and following Zero on foot. Stanley finds Zero under an overturned and abandoned boat, eating the decades-old leftovers of the peaches that Katherine Barlow loved to make.

Since Zero is the descendant of Madame Zeroni , Stanley - although he does not know it - has the chance to put things right and break the curse that has plagued his family for generations. Stanley's great-great-grandfather received a piglet from Madame Zeroni, and instructions on how to turn it into a prize-winning pig, in return for promising to take Madame Zeroni up a mountain and to sing her a song while she drank from a life-giving stream. It was by forgetting this promise that he brought the curse down on him and his descendants.

In the present day, Stanley and Zero find themselves at the thumb-shaped mountain that Stanley spotted from afar and they begin to climb it, hoping to find water. Zero becomes too weak to continue, so Stanley carries him up - thereby fulfilling his great-great-grandfather's promise, albeit several generations late, and breaking the curse. The two boys spend a week at the lush green top of the mountain.

After coming down, the two friends go back to Camp Green Lake and find the treasure. They are caught by the warden and her supervisors and are almost killed. Stanley's lawyer shows up and takes him, Zero, and the treasure back to Stanley's family. Camp Green Lake is shut down, and the Warden sells the land to an organization that plans to turn it into a Girl Scout camp. Stanley and Zero split the treasure, and Zero uses his half to find his mother. Stanley's father is finally able to find, patent, and sell a cure for foot odor. The Yelnatses and Zeronis live the rest of their lives in comfort.

Holes Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Holes is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Write a diary that Kissin' Kate Barlow would have written if she had kept one.

Sorry, this is only a short answer space. We can't do assignments for you.

Find words in holes that stress the ideas of the wasteland and aloneness

He hated to think what kind of vile substance Mr. Sir might have put in it.

Vast / emptiness

"Oh, Sam," she would say, speaking into the vast emptiness.

Chapter 21 Summary

GradeSaver has a complete summary and analysis for Chapter 21 readily available in its study guide for the unit.

Study Guide for Holes

Holes study guide contains a biography of Louis Sachar, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Holes
• Character List

Essays for Holes

Holes essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Holes by Louis Sachar.

• The Not So Subtle Portrayal of Supernatural Elements in E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web and Louis Sachar’s Holes

Lesson Plan for Holes

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Holes
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Holes Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Holes

• Introduction

November 15, 1998 He Didn't Do It A tale of prison life, buried treasure, helpful lizards and smelly feet. By BETSY HEARNE HOLES By Louis Sachar. 233 pp. New York. Frances Foster Books/ Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $16. (Ages 12 and up) magine a game where you know enough to make the next move exciting but not enough to know what that move is going to be. That's ''Holes,'' as deep as its title. You and any reasonable (or unreasonable) youth of your acquaintance will be drawn into this one. And it's not a black hole. Spiraling between past and present, Louis Sachar, whose light fiction for middle-grade readers (''There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom,'' ''Marvin Redpost: Alone in His Teacher's House'') has won him popular acclaim, abandons conventional plot for a more innovative mix of realism and legend, with elements of mystery that keep the surrealistic events suspenseful. Stanley Yelnats arrives at a Texas juvenile correctional facility called Camp Green Lake. The name is ironic, because there hasn't been a drop of water in this desert setting for a hundred years and the blazing sun has long since killed everything green. Stanley is innocent of anything except being in the wrong place at the wrong time, a fate that has plagued his family since his Latvian great-great-grandfather broke a promise to a helpful Gypsy. Some of this Stanley knows, and some he doesn't. Readers sometimes find out before he does, or sometimes at the same time, a trick of pacing and alternating scenarios that Sachar has mastered to intense effect. Every revelation of the past ups the ante of the present. The ominous warden -- she wears nail polish that's color-enhanced with rattlesnake venom -- also has a past, as do the inmates, especially one nicknamed Zero, whom even the (deceptively) kindhearted counselor calls worthless. Most of all, the lake has a past, and as the boys are ordered to dig holes -- each boy, one hole, five feet by five feet, every day -- we discover how all of these pasts intersect for a dangerous climax and a hole that holds more than dirt. Sounds grim, doesn't it? Nope, it's funny. Sachar inserts humor that gives the suspense steep edges; the tone is as full of surprises as the plot. Stanley's father, for instance, is an inventor working on a way to recycle old sneakers. In the process he hits the jackpot (though only after Stanley has broken the Gypsy's curse) with a recipe for curing foot odor. Stanley's incarceration occurs after the police arrest him for stealing a pair of the famous baseball player Sweet Feet Livingston's smelly sneakers (they actually fall on Stanley's head from out of the sky, but that's another subplot). One of the warden's ancestors was named Trout Walker. (His real name was Charles Walker, but everyone called him Trout because his two feet smelled like a couple of dead fish.) The inmate Stanley replaces is nicknamed Barf Bag. The onion fields that save Stanley and company from starvation also make the boys stink to high heaven. Now, any mention of body odor is guaranteed to send kids into gales of laughter. Even adults may not be able to restrain a smile at this goofy motif, cleverly interwoven as it is into an intricate scheme of predestination. One of the most successful aspects of Sachar's writing is his use of folkloric devices, especially the repetition of themes and phrases (''Zero said nothing'') that heighten anticipation (Zero finally says something crucial). Other traditional features include the rhyming song that has come down through Stanley's family, the moon's recurrence in both the song and the barren landscape pitted with craters by years of digging -- for treasure, as it turns out -- and the treasure hunt itself, not to mention a few animal helpers in the unlikely guise of some lethal yellow-spotted lizards. A lthough nothing is quite what it seems in this wildly inventive novel, the patterns of language and narrative assure us that everything will eventually make sense. And it does, in ways that I will not give away lest readers be denied the satisfaction of finding out for themselves. Between the tightly fitted plot and the signifying wordplay, ''Holes'' is a smart jigsaw puzzle of a novel that middle-grade youngsters will want to solve on their own. And they won't mind the compact chapters, poetic in a strictly action-packed way. One last note: A lot of nearly flawless children's novels (Natalie Babbitt's ''Tuck Everlasting'' comes to mind) are written by women and are strongest in their appeal to girls, though boys certainly enjoy them in a classroom or group situation. This children's book -- a finalist for the National Book Award to be announced this week -- is written by a man and projects magnetic attraction for boys, but make sure the girls don't miss out on it. Tough, truehearted and ultimately tender, ''Holes'' is also a member of that endangered species, the family read-aloud. You can even have a contest: which listener will notice first that Yelnats is Stanley spelled backward? Betsy Hearne is the author of ''Seven Brave Women.'' She teaches children's literature at the University of Illinois, Carbondale. Return to the Books Home Page

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Book Review

• Louis Sachar

Readability Age Range

• Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Newbery Medal, 1999; National Book Award for Young People's Literature, 1998; Christopher Award for Juvenile Fiction; ALA Notable Book;Publishers WeeklyNotable Children's Book of the Year

Year Published

This book has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

Wrongly accused of stealing sneakers, Stanley Yelnats is sentenced to 18 months at Camp Green Lake correctional facility. The boys there dig holes daily in the hot sun, supposedly to “build character” — but Stanley soon discovers the warden is actually hunting for a treasure tied to Stanley’s ancestors. As he masters his digging skills and rescues a fellow inmate, Stanley’s self-confidence grows. He also discovers the treasure may be closer than anyone realizes. Flashback tales about Stanley’s family history are woven through his Camp Green Lake experiences.

Christian Beliefs

Characters in Stanley’s flashbacks attribute physical healing to God and suggest that a tragic event was “God’s punishment.”

Other Belief Systems

Stanley and his dad halfway believe in a family curse supposedly placed on Stanley’s great, great grandfather.

Authority Roles

The warden and counselors at Camp Green Lake call the boys stupid, withhold water from them as they work in the hot sun, and sometimes even hurt them enough to draw blood. In one scene, these adults are prepared to shoot Stanley and his friend, Zero, in order to acquire the treasure. X-Ray, one of the young inmates, is leader of the boys in Stanley’s unit; he makes decisions including what order the boys stand in to get water each day. Stanley’s parents, though they show up mainly in Stanley’s memory, are kind and supportive. He lies to them in his letters so they won’t worry about him.

Profanity & Violence

Counselors say, “What the h—?” and take God’s name in vain once. A fair amount of violence occurs as the warden hurts the counselors and inmates, the counselors point guns at the kids, and the kids fight each other. None of the violence is terribly descriptive.

Sexual Content

In a flashback to the time of Stanley’s great grandfather, a white schoolteacher kisses a black peddler she loves. The town lynches him.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

Producers often use a book as a springboard for a movie idea or to earn a specific rating. Because of this, a movie may differ from the novel. To better understand how this book and movie differ, compare the book review with Plugged In’s movie review.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

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Louis Sachar

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There's no real camp or lake at Camp Green Lake. Though it was once the largest lake in Texas, it's been dry for the last 110 years. It's now a camp for "bad boys," where the boys dig holes every day. Stanley Yelnats is the only passenger on the bus to Camp Green Lake. He tries to pretend that he's going to an actual summer camp and hopes he'll make friends, as he's the victim of terrible bullying at home due to being overweight. Stanley is innocent of his crime; he was convicted because of his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather, who supposedly stole a pig and thereby cursed all of his descendants. No one in Stanley's family truly believes this, though things do go wrong a lot. Stanley steps off the bus and a man named Mr. Sir handles Stanley's intake. Stanley changes into an orange jumpsuit as Mr. Sir tells him he'll be required to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet across every day and that he should report anything interesting he finds to one of the counselors.

Stanley meets his counselor, Mr. Pendanski , and his fellow campers in Tent D. Though Mr. Pendanski uses their given names to introduce them, the boys introduce themselves as X-Ray , Squid , Magnet , Armpit , Zigzag , and Zero . Stanley takes his four-minute cold shower, eats dinner, and the other boys don't believe that Stanley is at camp for stealing the famous baseball player Clyde Livingston's shoes. The shoes fell from the sky onto Stanley as he was walking home from school and he ran with the smelly shoes to his father, feeling as though the shoes were the key to Stanley's father 's latest invention. His parents had been too poor to hire a lawyer to defend Stanley.

As Stanley begins to dig his first hole, the narrator tells the story of Elya Yelnats , Stanley's great-great grandfather. At age fifteen in Latvia, Elya fell in love with Myra Menke . Myra's father , however, wanted Myra to marry Igor Barkov , a 57-year-old pig farmer. Elya went to his friend Madame Zeroni for help. She insisted that Myra was silly and spoiled, but she agreed to help Elya anyway. She gave Elya a runty piglet and instructed him to carry the piglet up the nearby mountain daily, where the pig was to drink from a stream while Elya sang a special song to it. After Myra's birthday, Elya was to then carry Madame Zeroni up the hill. If he didn't follow through, Madame Zeroni would curse his descendants for eternity. Elya did as he was told and both he and the pig grew big and strong. On the last day, however, Elya took a bath instead of carrying his pig up the hill. The pig weighed just as much as Igor's, so Myra's father allowed Myra to choose her husband. Myra refused to choose, so Elya got on a ship bound for America and didn't realize until later that he'd broken his promise to Madame Zeroni. The curse started to seem real in America, after Elya married and had the first Stanley .

In the present, Stanley finishes his first hole. He spends a few minutes in the rec room, which is called the Wreck Room, and realizes his tent mates have christened him the Caveman. He then writes a letter to Stanley's mother lying to her about the fun he's having at camp. He notices Zero reading over his shoulder. On the second day, Stanley finds a fossil of a fish, though Mr. Pendanski says that the Warden doesn't care about fossils. X-Ray, the leader of the group, tells Stanley that if he finds anything else, he needs to give it to him—he's been at camp a year and hasn't found anything. Later that afternoon, Stanley joins a circle led by Mr. Pendanski. The boys discuss what they want to do when they get out, though nobody takes it seriously. Mr. Pendanski talks about personal responsibility and calls Zero stupid.

One afternoon, Stanley finds a gold tube in the dirt with "KB" inscribed in a heart on one end. He gives it to X-Ray and suggests he wait until the next day to "find" it. The next morning, Stanley tries to ask X-Ray about the tube at breakfast, but X-Ray won't talk about it. X-Ray "finds" the tube that morning and the Warden comes out to oversee the digging. The boys spend a week digging in one area, and Stanley realizes the Warden is looking for something.

One afternoon, Zero admits to Stanley that he can't read and asks Stanley to teach him. Stanley insists he doesn't know how to teach and doesn't have the energy. The following morning, as Mr. Sir fills canteens by the holes, Magnet steals Mr. Sir's sunflower seeds. The boys pass them around, but Stanley spills the bag in his hole right as Mr. Sir returns to look for them. Stanley takes the blame, and Mr. Sir takes Stanley to speak to the Warden. In the Warden's house, the Warden paints her nails with red polish that she makes with rattlesnake venom. She hits Mr. Sir hard for bothering her. When Stanley returns to his hole, he finds that Zero had been digging for him. That afternoon, Stanley thinks about the first Stanley, who was robbed by the outlaw Kissin' Kate Barlow and left in this very desert. He apparently found refuge on " God's Thumb ," though he had no idea what that even meant after he was rescued. Later, Stanley offers to teach Zero to read. They agree that Zero will dig part of Stanley's holes in exchange for lessons.

The narrator goes back to the 1880s, when the town of Green Lake was actually a lakeside town. The local schoolteacher, Miss Katherine Barlow, was beloved by all, especially Charles "Trout" Walker . Trout Walker, however, was stupid and proud of it, as well as wealthy and entitled. He was enraged when Miss Katherine turned down his advances. Not long after, Sam , the onion man, offered to fix the dilapidated schoolhouse for Miss Katherine. Over the course of a few months, Sam made the schoolhouse beautiful. Finally, they kissed in the rain one night. One person saw them and the next day, a mob burned the schoolhouse, angry because Sam was black. The sheriff wouldn't help Katherine and instead, asked her for a kiss. Katherine and Sam tried to escape across the lake, but Trout Walker shot Sam and "rescued" Katherine. Three days later, Katherine shot the sheriff, kissed him, and spent the next twenty years as a feared outlaw. She returned to Green Lake when it was a ghost town, where Trout Walker and his wife, Linda , found her. They attempted to make her give up the location of her treasure, but a yellow-spotted lizard bit her and she died laughing, telling them to start digging.

Back in the present, Mr. Sir's face swells to the size of a melon. When he delivers water, he doesn't give Stanley any. Stanley and Zero continue their reading lessons and Zero learns quickly, though the other boys mock Stanley and call him a slave master when Zero digs. Zero tells Stanley that his real name is Hector Zeroni. One morning, Stanley is able to see a rock formation in the distance that looks like a thumbs-up sign, and he wonders if it's God's Thumb. The next day, Mr. Pendanski arrives with lunch, Zigzag begins pushing Stanley and Mr. Pendanski encourages a fight. Zero rescues Stanley from Zigzag as Mr. Pendanski shoots his gun to call the Warden. Zigzag lets slip to the Warden the nature of Stanley and Zero's agreement. She insists the lessons need to stop and Mr. Pendanski insists that Zero is too stupid to learn anyway. Zero hits Mr. Pendanski across the face with a shovel and then walks into the desert. Stanley spends the next few days thinking that he should go after Zero. The Warden, Mr. Sir, and Mr. Pendanski speak to Stanley about Zero's whereabouts and say in front of him that they're going to destroy Zero's records. As a ward of the state, there's nobody to care about him.

On the day that Group D gets a new boy, Twitch , Stanley decides to steal the water truck and rescue Zero. He crashes the truck into a hole and continues on foot into the desert. He feels as though the thumbs-up sign is encouraging him. In the afternoon, he discovers Zero hiding in a tunnel under an old boat. He's been eating what he calls sploosh, which is fruit preserves of some sort. He shares his last jar with Stanley and then the two decide to head for God's Thumb. Zero begins experiencing painful episodes of stomach cramps, though he's able to walk all the way to the edge of the lakebed, climb up the cliffs on the other side, and then start up the mountain. At one point, Zero vomits and then collapses. Stanley leaves their shovel and their saved jars behind and begins to carry Zero up the hill. Close to the top, Stanley falls in a muddy gully and finds water and an onion. He gives some to Zero, and they spend the next two days recovering. Zero admits he stole Clyde Livingston's shoes from the homeless shelter, and Stanley sings him Elya's lullaby. As Zero improves, he tells Stanley about his mother . They used to live in a house, though they always had to steal. When Zero stole the shoes from the homeless shelter, he thought he was doing a better thing by stealing old shoes instead of new ones. Stanley and Zero decide to return to camp, try to dig up Kate Barlow's treasure where Stanley found the tube, and then escape.

As Stanley and Zero walk, they try not to drink water and Zero talks more about his mom. That night, they find the hole and begin digging. Stanley is surprised to discover a suitcase and is eventually able to wiggle it out. As he hands it to Zero, the Warden, Mr. Sir, and Mr. Pendanski arrive. The adults, however, back away horrified—the hole is a yellow-spotted lizard nest, and both boys are covered in lizards. Stanley and Zero are still alive hours later as the adults suggest shooting the boys to get the treasure. The Warden also runs through their story: Stanley was delusional, ran into a hole, and was killed by lizards. Stanley is too preoccupied to listen when Mr. Sir tells Stanley's he's innocent and his lawyer came to pick him up yesterday.

Finally, they see a car coming. A young woman introduces herself as Ms. Morengo , Stanley's lawyer, and introduces the Texas Attorney General . The Warden attempts to tell them that Stanley tried to steal her suitcase, but her story doesn't add up. After a few minutes, Stanley is able to crawl out of the hole and helps Zero up. When the Warden tries to take the suitcase from Zero, he points out that it has Stanley's name on it. After getting paperwork in order, Ms. Morengo tries to lead Stanley away, but he refuses to go without Zero. Ms. Morengo and the Attorney General discover that Zero's records are missing, so Ms. Morengo takes Zero with her. In the car, she explains that Stanley's father invented something to cure foot odor and pretends she didn't hear Zero's confession that he stole Clyde Livingston's shoes. It begins to rain at Green Lake.

The narrator says that whether one believes in the curse or not, it's true that Stanley's father experienced his breakthrough on the day that Elya Yelnats's great-great grandson carried Madame Zeroni's great-great-great grandson up the mountain. Camp Green Lake is slated to become a Girl Scout camp, and Stanley and Zero each get about a million dollars from the contents of the suitcase. A year and a half later, Stanley and Hector are at a party to see the new commercial for Stanley's father's invention, which Clyde Livingston promotes. Hector sits with his mother, who sings a version of the lullaby that Madame Zeroni taught Elya.

• Quizzes, saving guides, requests, plus so much more.

Holes Summary

How it all goes down.

We're headed to camp! Actually, scratch that exclamation point: Holes begins with a description of Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility in Texas. Basically, it's a place for kids who have committed crimes. Stanley Yelnats, overweight, lonely, and poor, has been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, and he's on a bus headed for Camp Green Lake.

Stanley's arrest is just the latest in a string of bad fortunes for the Yelnats family. Turns out that several generations back, the Yelnatses were cursed by a one-legged gypsy. And over the course of the book, we get a glimpse into some different time periods: the story of Stanley Yelnats and his unlikely friendship with another camper named Zero; the story of Stanley's great-great-grandpa who was cursed by Madame Zeroni; and the story of Miss Katherine's transformation to Kissin' Kate Barlow after a failed love affair with an onion man.

In the end, all of these stories come together, and – spoiler alert – Stanley Yelnats comes out on top and the underdog prevails. Booya.

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