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Summary and Reviews of Holes by Louis Sachar

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

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• First Published:
• Sep 1, 1998, 233 pages
• May 2000, 233 pages
• Literary Fiction
• Young Adults
• 1980s & '90s
• 1st in Series
• Jewish Authors
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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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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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Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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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.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-6

Part 1, Chapters 7-12

Part 1, Chapters 13-19

Part 1, Chapters 20-24

Part 1, Chapters 25-28

Part 2, Chapters 29-35

Part 2, Chapters 36-43

Part 2, Chapter 44-Part 3, Chapter 50

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

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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Sideways Stories from Wayside School

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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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Tuesday 18 June 2019

Review: holes.

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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More About This Book

BOOK TO SCREEN

TUCK EVERLASTING

by Natalie Babbitt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1975

However the compelling fitness of theme and event and the apt but unexpected imagery (the opening sentences compare the...

At a time when death has become an acceptable, even voguish subject in children's fiction, Natalie Babbitt comes through with a stylistic gem about living forever. 

Protected Winnie, the ten-year-old heroine, is not immortal, but when she comes upon young Jesse Tuck drinking from a secret spring in her parents' woods, she finds herself involved with a family who, having innocently drunk the same water some 87 years earlier, haven't aged a moment since. Though the mood is delicate, there is no lack of action, with the Tucks (previously suspected of witchcraft) now pursued for kidnapping Winnie; Mae Tuck, the middle aged mother, striking and killing a stranger who is onto their secret and would sell the water; and Winnie taking Mae's place in prison so that the Tucks can get away before she is hanged from the neck until....? Though Babbitt makes the family a sad one, most of their reasons for discontent are circumstantial and there isn't a great deal of wisdom to be gleaned from their fate or Winnie's decision not to share it. 

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1975

ISBN: 0312369816

Page Count: 164

Review Posted Online: April 13, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1975

More by Natalie Babbitt

by Natalie Babbitt

by Valerie Worth & illustrated by Natalie Babbitt

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Louis Sachar

Ask LitCharts AI: The answer to your questions

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Louis Sachar's Holes . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Holes: Introduction

Holes: plot summary, holes: detailed summary & analysis, holes: themes, holes: quotes, holes: characters, holes: symbols, holes: theme wheel, brief biography of louis sachar.

Historical Context of Holes

Other books related to holes.

• Full Title: Holes
• When Written: 1997-98
• Where Written: Texas, USA
• When Published: 1998
• Literary Period: Contemporary
• Genre: Children's/Young Adult Fiction; Adventure Novel
• Setting: Latvia, mid-1800s; Green Lake, TX 1880s; Camp Green Lake, late 1990s
• Climax: Ms. Morengo arrives, allowing Stanley and Hector to safely climb out of a hole with the mysterious suitcase and escape the Warden
• Antagonist: Trout Walker, the Warden, and the counselors
• Point of View: Third person omniscient

Extra Credit for Holes

Reading Should Be Fun. Sachar has said that he writes the kind of books he does (funny, with outlandish characters) with the intention of making reading enjoyable for young readers.

Sigourney Weaver. Sigourney Weaver, who plays the Warden in the film adaptation of Holes , initially expressed interest in working on the project due to the fact that her daughter loves the novel.

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

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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by Louis Sachar

Holes study guide.

Holes is Louis Sachar 's fifth novel, and probably his most loved. The novel took Sachar a year and a half to write, and was published in 1998. Holes combined huge popular appeal with critical success, as Holes won or was nominated for almost twenty different awards, including the National Book Award (1998) and a Newbery Medal (1999). In 2012, Holes was voted the sixth best children's chapter book of all time by the School Library Journal .

A movie of the book, for which Sachar wrote the screenplay, was produced in 2003 by Walt Disney Pictures. Small Steps , which is not a direct sequel but follows the post-Camp Green Lake lives of some of Holes' minor characters, was published in 2006.

On the subject of the book's genre, scholar Laura Nicosia writes that Holes has been classified at different times as "realistic, a tall tale, a folk tale, a fairy tale, a children’s story, a postmodern novel, a detective fiction and an historical legend" - quite a list for what appears on the surface to be a relatively simple book for kids to read and enjoy. Although it is frequently taught in middle and high school, Holes has also been the subject of serious critical attention, particularly from scholars interested in its portrayal of the past and its postmodern, complex narrative style.

It seems that Holes belongs to that rare and special breed of children's books for grown-ups.

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
• Holes Summary
• 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

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Holes Book — A Review Of Holes By Louis Sachar

A Review of Holes by Louis Sachar

• Categories: Book Review Holes Book Literary Devices

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Published: Aug 6, 2021

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Related Essays on Holes Book

‘Holes’ is a novel written by Louis Sachar which focuses on the story of Stanley Yelnats and the side-plots of Kate Barlow and Madam Zeroni. The main story, as well as the side-plots, show a strong theme of justice and [...]

When thinking about the movie Holes and the book there seem to be many similarities and differences. The Holes movie by Andrew Davis and the book by Louis Sachar are based on a boy named “Stanley” that steals a pair of shoes and [...]

How deep should you dig to change destiny? “From the tip of the steel blade to the end of the wooden shaft” would answer Stanley Yelnats, the character of the novel “Holes” (1998) of the modern American writer Louis Sachar. The [...]

Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” is set in Victorian London and tells the story of the transformation of a wicked, miserly Scrooge into a benevolent humanitarian via supernatural intervention. The invited reading persuades readers [...]

Both texts highlight and effectually foreground, the need for humanity to learn from its mistakes for its ultimate survival. The social, cultural and historical milieu of a composer’s era, significantly molds construction of [...]

In George Orwell's 1984, the differences and relationships between the proles, the Outer Party, and the Inner Party reflect different aspects of human nature and the various levels of the human psyche. The most base, savage [...]

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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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September 5th, 2024

Can the medium term hold torsten bell’s great britain – review.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

In Great Britain? Torsten Bell critiques the UK’s short-term political thinking under the recent 14-year stint of Conservative leadership, linking it to low investment and stagnating productivity. According to  Phil Bell , though the book stops short of unravelling the political rationale for such myopic policymaking, it sets out a hopeful and persuasive set of medium-term reforms for boosting productivity and reducing inequality.

Great Britain? How We Get Our Future Back.  Torsten Bell. The Bodley Head. 2024.

Bell’s main focus is how short-term thinking has led to a country desperately lacking investment.

The diagnosis is familiar. Britain has been bottom of the G7 in investment for 24 of the last 30 years, while private investment is a whole “league below” (108-109) our nearest competitors, despite the fact that the returns on private investment are higher in the UK than elsewhere. This is because Britain’s variant of capitalism includes limited worker voice, is particularly “hands off” and focused on short-term profit. Owners of British companies are more likely to be foreign (up from 10 per cent in 1990 to 55 per cent in 2020) (111) and more fragmented. They therefore have less incentive to invest in the long run. One reason for the short-termist structure of UK companies is the closure of “Defined Benefit” pension funds to new savers (112). They used to act as large and active owners of UK companies but now invest more in government bonds. The replacement “Defined Contribution” schemes are less likely to hold UK company shares and only do so indirectly. Of the £2 trillion in total UK pension assets only two per cent are UK equities (112).

Lack of both public and private investment partly explains why it takes German, French and American workers four days to produce the same output as a British worker in five.

Productivity, the key protagonist in Britain’s stagnating growth story, is closely linked to investment. For example, since we invest less in MRI scanners and other medical equipment than comparable countries, this means doctors can be less productive. Lack of both public and private investment partly explains why it takes German, French and American workers four days to produce the same output as a British worker in five. If there is a key to economic growth, then this may be it (114). As Paul Krugman has noted “Productivity isn’t everything, but, in the long run, it is almost everything.” The productivity of cities outside London should be the major cause for concern, according to Bell. Birmingham, Belfast and Manchester actually have productivity levels below the national average. Edinburgh is the only outlier.

There is no quick fix to boost productivity in these cities, and Bell argues for a systemic approach, including combining investment in housing, offices and transport. Most of the solutions proposed in this book are medium-term, which aligns with Starmer’s messaging (“ A decade of national renewal” ) and his Fabian roots (the Fabian symbol is a tortoise). Bell, who was selected as Labour candidate for Swansea West shortly after writing the book, was formerly Head of Policy for Ed Miliband and Director of the influential Resolution Foundation think tank.

Rather than boosterism, he calls for a Britain that has ‘more normal’ productivity, wealth equality and standards of living compared to competitors.

This book will therefore be studied for clues as to what a Labour administration will do. Bell is a reformer. He jokingly described his approach on Twitter as “radical incrementalism” . Rather than boosterism, he calls for a Britain that has “more normal” productivity, wealth equality and standards of living compared to competitors. He calls the two-child benefit cap a “poverty guarantee” and finds flaws in the Universal Credit system. However, he argues that reforming the latter would be more pragmatic and efficient than scrapping it.

He is allergic to policies aimed at short-term political gain. The tax system is a textbook case of policy being infected by political short-term political thinking. In an attempt to raise government revenue without increasing headline tax rates, politicians have taken the country on a “rollercoaster” and created a “dog’s dinner” tax system with too many loopholes. This is particularly true of personal allowance and corporation tax. Rather than increasing the quantity of tax, Bell argues for improving the “quality” of the tax system. One of the more radical proposals is to focus more on wealth taxes (such as capital gains tax) rather than income tax, echoing Miliband’s Mansion tax from 2015 .

Perhaps the central policy idea in the book is to separate public investment from day-to-day spending on the government balance sheet, and replace the three per cent total borrowing target with a target for tax revenues to cover this day-to-day spending. This “current budget balance” would reduce the incentive for politicians to swap longer-term public investment to cover day-to-day spending shortfalls. Additionally, Bell argues that we should take a more nuanced view of government fiscal health by considering public assets alongside debt.

Bell doesn’t do the job of explaining how the Labour administration should resist the forces that led the Conservatives to be so short-termist. There is a reason politicians don’t want to be seen to raise tax or why they choose to pay for nurses instead of investing in equipment which will pay back returns in a decade.

This is a compelling set of solutions, and surely most voters would like to see a political system more considerate of the medium-term, but Bell doesn’t do the job of explaining how the Labour administration should resist the forces that led the Conservatives to be so short-termist. There is a reason politicians don’t want to be seen to raise tax or why they choose to pay for nurses instead of investing in equipment which will pay back returns in a decade. Separating public and day-to-day investment on the national balance sheet seems sensible, but as with many sensible policies our political system is unable to implement, there is political work to be done to enable it.

Indeed, the short termism of the Conservative government is part of a wider trend, according to Jonathan White’s In the Long Run . Our political attention span is disintegrating: news cycles are becoming faster and social media feedback loops shorter. Dominic Cummings called his solution to this “the random announcement generator” . In this environment elections are increasingly narrated as the election to end all elections (think James Cleverly’s claim that Starmer winning would lead to a “permanent Labour government” or Biden’s claim that a Trump presidency would have “virtually no limits”.) At the same time as our dopamine-fuelled political systems lurch from crisis to crisis, we face a series of unprecedentedly long-term challenges (including climate breakdown and funding our welfare system with an ageing population). At this juncture, a democracy which has lost faith in the future is in serious trouble.

Bell’s book provides a hopeful vision of how an administration could counteract a politics that is unable to face the future.

Bell’s book provides a hopeful vision of how an administration could counteract a politics that is unable to face the future. It is clear, though, that there are structural reasons why governments struggle to move on from “politics as emergency” and expand the time horizons of their democracies to match the challenges they face. Keynes famously said that “in the long run we are all dead”, and new governments can face all-encompassing immediate crises (just ask Boris Johnson). But Bell has set out a persuasive set of solutions for a government bracing itself most of all for the medium term.

Note:  This review gives the views of the author and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Image: Keir Starmer on Flickr , licensed under  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 .

About the author

Phil Bell writes about education, economics and tech. He has spent a decade working in the education sector, including as a teacher, Fulbright Scholar at Harvard and at Arbor Education.

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