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Holes
Cover of Holes
Holes
WINNER OF THE NEWBERY MEDAL AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME


The iconic, multi-million bestselling novel, in a 25th anniversary edition with exclusive new material inside. An unmissable modern classic.

Stanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck, so when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre (which isn't green and doesn't have a lake), it's not exactly a surprise.
Every day he and the other inmates are told to dig a hole each, five foot wide by five foot deep, reporting anything they find. Why? The evil warden claims that it builds character, but this is a lie. It's up to Stanley to dig up the truth.

A masterpiece of storytelling that combines sly humour with irresistible, page-turning writing.
New 25th anniversary edition includes exclusive material from author Louis Sachar, a foreword from acclaimed author Phil Earle and brilliant readers' notes from Scott Evans (The Reader Teacher).

'A witty, moving read that grabs you and never lets up'
Daily Telegraph
WINNER OF THE NEWBERY MEDAL AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME


The iconic, multi-million bestselling novel, in a 25th anniversary edition with exclusive new material inside. An unmissable modern classic.

Stanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck, so when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre (which isn't green and doesn't have a lake), it's not exactly a surprise.
Every day he and the other inmates are told to dig a hole each, five foot wide by five foot deep, reporting anything they find. Why? The evil warden claims that it builds character, but this is a lie. It's up to Stanley to dig up the truth.

A masterpiece of storytelling that combines sly humour with irresistible, page-turning writing.
New 25th anniversary edition includes exclusive material from author Louis Sachar, a foreword from acclaimed author Phil Earle and brilliant readers' notes from Scott Evans (The Reader Teacher).

'A witty, moving read that grabs you and never lets up'
Daily Telegraph
Available formats-
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB eBook
Languages:-
Copies-
  • Available:
    0
  • Library copies:
    1
Levels-
  • ATOS:
    4.6
  • Lexile:
    660
  • Interest Level:
    MG
  • Text Difficulty:
    3


 
Awards-
About the Author-
  • Louis Sachar lives in Austin, Texas, where he writes his novels and plays quite a lot of bridge. His novel Holes has sold over 1.5 million copies in the Bloomsbury edition alone and Louis is the recipient of many of the world's most well-regarded book prizes, including the National Book Award and the Newbery Award.
Reviews-
  • Publisher's Weekly

    May 8, 2000
    PW's starred review of the 1999 Newbery Medal winner described it as a "dazzling blend of social commentary, tall tale and magic realism." Ages 10-up.

  • Publisher's Weekly

    January 31, 2000
    With an ever-so-slight Texas twang, Beyer transports listeners to barren, blistering-hot Camp Green Lake, the juvenile correctional facility where Stanley Yelnats is serving a sentence he doesn't deserve. If it weren't for lousy luck, Stanley would have no luck at all--a condition that his family traces to Stanley's "no-good dirty-rotten pig-stealing great-great-grandfather." Stanley toughs out his time with an unflagging sense of humor, considering he and his fellow offenders must each dig a hole five feet wide and five feet deep every day with little water and the constant threat of poisonous lizards. But as Stanley gets into the swing of things, he and his new pal Zero discover that the warden actually has them digging for buried treasure--treasure that is somehow linked to the Yelnats family curse. Beyer's buoyant, boyish manner ensures that Sachar's witty novel, winner of both the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award, makes a smooth transition to audio. The short chapters breeze along for a thoroughly entertaining listen. Ages 8-up.

  • Publisher's Weekly

    Starred review from August 3, 1998
    This wry and loopy novel about a camp for juvenile delinquents in a dry Texas desert (once the largest lake in the state) by the author of There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom and the Wayside School series has some serious undercurrents. Stanley Yelnats (appropriately enough for a story about reversals, the protagonist's name is a palindrome) gets sent to Camp Green Lake to do penance, "a camp for bad boys." Never mind that Stanley didn't commit the crime he has been convicted of--he blames his bad luck on his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather." He digs five-foot-deep holes with all the other "bad" boys under the baleful direction of the Warden, perhaps the most terrifying female since Big Nurse. Just when it seems as though this is going to be a weird YA cross between One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Cool Hand Luke, the story takes off--along with Stanley, who flees camp after his buddy Zero--in a wholly unexpected direction to become a dazzling blend of social commentary, tall tale and magic realism. Readers (especially boys) will likely delight in the larger-than-life (truly Texas-style) manner in which Sachar fills in all the holes, as he ties together seemingly disparate story threads to dispel ghosts from the past and give everyone their just deserts. Ages 12-up.

  • Independent on Sunday Holes is one of those instant classics that adults, as well as children over eight, will thoroughly enjoy. Sachar has created something quite different from JK Rowling or Philip Pullman, but no less enchanting
  • The Daily Telegraph If you want a witty, moving read that grabs you and never lets up, look no further than Holes
  • Books for Keeps Forget the fame and glamour of Holes, the movie and the rest. Just remember Camp Green Lake and that story that gave us one of the best books of the last ten years
  • Malorie Blackman The most moving, exciting, thrilling book... I loved it
Title Information+
  • Publisher
    Bloomsbury Publishing
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