Author: Louis Sachar
Title: Holes
Rating: 4
Reviewer: TK Grade: 6
Review:
The book Holes is a story filled with adventures of a boy by the name of Stanley. The author Louis Sachar wrote this book. The children at Camp Green Lake are digging holes for "character," but it seems that the Warden is looking for something.
The Warden was in charge of the camp. When a kid found something interesting, the Warden would make the children dig around that place until they found something. She would make them dig harder than ever and give them more water.
Mr. Sir checked kids when they first came to make sure they were not hiding anything. He stopped smoking a month before. He also chewed sunnflower seeds and said, "This isn't a Girl Scout camp." He also took turns driving the water truck with Mr. Pendarski.
Mr. Pendanski was in charge of the D-tent. He told Stanley the only one rule at Camp Green Lake: Don't upset the Warden. He was one of the counselors who slept in tent F. He also told Stanley when Stanley got a letter from his parents.
Stanley was at Camp Green Lake because he was innocent, but convicted wrongly of a crime. Stanley blamed his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather for the crime. Stanley thought Camp Green Lake was a camp where people could swim in a lake when it was hot. In reality, it was a camp of torture.
In Camp Green Lake, children were to dig a hole deep and wide as the shovel they weree holding to dig. The shovel was five feet long. They were to dig only one hole a day, and they had to wake up at 4:30. Zero was the smallest kid, but he was the fastest digger in Camp D.
Stanley did not talk to Zero at first, but gradually, he began to talk to him because Zero did not know how to read and write, but Stanley taught him. He later abandoned the camp when the Warden said it was not right when Stanley taught Zero how to read and write. Stanley went after him later on.
The kids X-Ray, Armpit, Zigzag, Magnet, Squid, and Twitch were the other children of the D-tent. X-Ray was the leader of the group. X-Ray was pig latin for Rex. Armpit was the biggest, not counting Stanley. Zigzag was a guy who had wild, frizzy hair who had a big round head on a skinny neck. Magnet liked to steal stuff, Squid had on allergy, and Twitch was the newest kid. He could break into the car, disconnect the alarm, and hot-wire the engine in less than a minute.
In the real world, children should not be in a torture camp when they are innocent. Even if the child does not have a lawyer, the judge should listen to the child carefully. Otherwise the result will be like Stanley Yelnats.
8/13/03
Author: Louis Sachar
Title: Holes
Rating: 5
Reviewer: AJA Grade: 7
Review:
Stanley Yelnats is overweight and big for his age. He is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was sitting down after school and a pair of shoes just happens to land on him. He later finds out that the shoes were stolen from the famous baseball player Clyde Livingston. Stanley is accused for the crime he didn’t commit and has a choice to either go to jail or Camp Green Lake. He decides to go to Camp Green Lake because he has never been to a camp before. He thought the camp would be fun because he thought it had a lake (since it had “lake” in its name). On the way to camp there was no one on the bus and he was handcuffed to the seat for 9 hours. As if that wasn’t enough the guard watched him the whole way. He finally got to camp to find out that there was no lake at all, it was a hot and dusty desert. When he went to the cabin he met some friends, Armpit, Rex, Alan, X-Ray, Squid, and Zero (these are just nick names). Stanley slept on a cot that had been slept in by a kid named barf bag, this didn’t make him any happier. Every day Stanley would have to dig a hole 5X5, and with the sun beating down on him it was hard enough. Then he could do whatever he wanted, although everything was broken and there was nothing to do. Stanley eventually got used to digging holes but still didn’t like it. One day, when Stanley was reading notes from his parents, he noticed Zero looking over his shoulder and asked Zero why he was doing so. Zero said that he couldn’t read and he was trying to learn. Zero asked Stanley to teach him how to read and in return he would dig a part of Stanley’s hole. Stanley agreed. The next day ,when Zero was digging Stanley’s hole, the warden came out and they explained the deal. The warden and the counselor started to make fun of then and one day Zero ran away furious. The warden didn’t care because she thought Zero wouldn’t have survived anyway. After a few days Stanley got worried and went out to find Zero. After a few hours he found Zero under a boat with five jars of apple juice. Stanley stayed with Zero and they both finished the jars. Then instead of going back to camp they went to Devils Thumb (a mountain). They walked for some time and Zero became too weak, so Stanley carried Zero up the mountain. Then one day Stanley was digging in the mud and found some dirty water, he drank it and dug deeper for some more. Instead he found a whole bunch of onions and , with this, fed himself and Zero. After a while they decided to head back to camp and finish digging the hole they had started because they found a gold tube with the initials KB on it. When they finally go back they waited till night and finished the hole. They found a briefcase but before they got it a whole bunch of deadly lizards came out and surrounded them. They didn’t move and waited till the morning. The warden came out and saw them and the treasure. She reached for the treasure but immediately took her hand back out because of the lizards that could kill her. A little while later the lizards left and the warden grabbed the suitcase and said it was hers. Stanley said it wasn’t hers, it had his name on it. It was really Stanley’s great grandfather, who left his suitcase there a long time ago. When Stanley’s parents came to pick him up, they wanted Zero to go home too. The parents asked the warden for Zero’s records but the warden erased them because he didn’t have parents and didn’t think he would survive. Stanley’s parents took both boys and shut down the camp, the warden went to jail for the cruelty she had done and they lived happily ever after.
9/7/03