Stanley Yelnats is down on his luck.
Really down.
So down that he gets accused of a crime he
didn’t commit and shipped off to a reform
camp in sweltering Texas.
What happens when he gets there makes for
the rollicking good read … in this week’s
Pick.
Ever since Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great
grandfather backed out of his deal with the
one-legged Gypsy woman, the Yelnats family
has been cursed.
Stanley’s father is an inventor with more
failures on his hands than the family can
count.
And Stanley’s a pudgy misfit who’s been
sentenced to digging holes in the desert.
As punishment.
For a crime he didn’t commit, remember?
But things at Camp Green Lake (where, by the
way, there is no lake) are about to get interesting.
For one thing, there’s the terrifying Warden,
who seems to have more on her mind than rehabilitating
a bunch of juvenile offenders.
For another, there’s the story of the outlaw
Kissin’ Kate Barlow.
And then there’s Zero, another kid at the
camp, with whom Stanley discovers an unusual
connection.
What I love about Holes, and what you will,
too, is the way Louis Sachar weaves together
all the various storylines in this book until
you see that, actually, they’re one story.
One story, with one dramatic climax.
And an “I-can’t-believe-what just happened”
conclusion that will appeal to adults and
kids alike.
