Stanley Yelnats has bad luck. His family has long had bad luck and tend to blame their misfortunes on an easy scapegoat--their
long dead, no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather. Stanley''s bad luck starts with famous shoes.
One day, out of the blue, a famous baseball player''s shoes fall from the sky and land on the street next to Stanley''s feet. He takes them and is later arrested for stealing. In a case of mistaken identity, he is sentenced to the harsh conditions of servitude. He is sent to Camp Green Lake--a dry and desolate place where juvenile offenders dig 5-feet deep, 5-feet wide holes, every day for the length of their incarceration.
Stanley doesn''t fair too well in the beginning of his term spent at Green Lake. He''s tormented by the more "
hardened"
children, as they taunt and test this "new fish." Stanley soon learns the tricks to survival in this hardened place--where the ground has been hardened by years and years of drought, and the warden of the camp is hardened by her frustration. The reason she has boys dig, is she''s looking for something.
The history of Green Lake involves a love affair, racism, greed and murder. And Stanley is tied to a piece of it, as his great-great grandfather was briefly involved with the town''s most notorious outlaw, Kissin'' Kate Barlow.
Eventually, Stanley uses his smarts, and maybe even a twist of fate, to overcome his misfortune and brave his escape. He even makes a life-long friend in the end, and turns his misfortune into good fortune.
Perhaps Louis Sachar wrote Holes for an audience of children. However, it''s a book any adult with a heart for adventure, will enjoy. The descriptive details of the landscape make it easy to put oneself in Stanley''s shoes--I could almost feel the sweat oozing down the brow, as the midday sun rises high, cooking the baked earth.
The plot is very believable, and even pulls at the heartstrings as the reader witnesses children become sensitive and heart-warming when faced with a hopeless situation. It''s a great book that allows the reader to connect with its characters, as they are normal people--it''s realistic fiction that would appeal to children as well, without the talking yellow sponges, purple dinosaurs, or gratuitous violence.