Holes
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4.4 • 10 Ratings
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
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. An unmissable modern classic.
'Joyous... Everyone should be reading it, including adults' Cressida Cowell, author of How to Train your Dragon
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.
CONTAINS EXCLUSIVE NEW MATERIAL FROM THE AUTHOR, PLUS A FOREWORD FROM PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR PHIL EARLE AND READING GROUP NOTES
'A witty, moving read that grabs you and never lets up' Daily Telegraph
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
