Review | Holes by Louis Sachar

2021-05-30 · by ·
“If only, if only,” the woodpecker sighs,
“The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies.”
While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,
Crying to the moo-oo-oon,
“If only, if only.”
 
I’m not sure if I’ve ever read Holes by Louis Sachar before, but the kids have me on a “read the book before the movie” kick, and this was the next stop on our list (to be followed by James and The Giant Peach). It is perhaps deeper than it appears on it’s face, far more than it might have seemed to those I read it to.
 
As children’s books go, it’s not terrible. In fact, it’s pretty good, keeping the littles’ attention, even though it lacks dragons, wizards, magic, or any supernatural elements.
 
Well, at least any obviously supernatural elements. There certainly is an undercurrent of folk magic, or maybe just fate or karma, that loops through the whole story, providing a setting for Stanley Yelnats (the fifth? Sixth?) to redeem his family’s legacy and free them from a curse that has plagued them for over a century. Stanley is no Harry Potter or Lucy Pevensie, but in many respects far more sympathetic. His parents are both alive and solidly struggling to get ahead, though bad luck seems to plague the family from one generation to the next. Stanley seems, on the face of it, a pretty normal kid, with no special abilities or qualities, except that he is not a criminal, or trouble maker, with anything in common with the juvenile offenders he is tossed in with at Camp Green Lake. With only a few details available to the reader, he initially appears to be nothing more than a kid who may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
 
But there are further details to be learned.
 
Against this relatively benign background is the far more tragic and, frankly, far more adult story of Green Lake’s history, including the outlaw Kissing Kate Barlow, Sam the Onion Man and his donkey Mary Lou, and the villainous Trout Walker. It almost caught me by surprise to find this lesson on America’s dark history with racism weaved into a children’s story. Our twelve-year-old largely sat out this book—she’s less patient with me reading to the kids these days, her own interests in books quickly outpacing the speed I can read, as well as the reading level of her younger sisters—but the lessons might be more apparent to her.
 

Holes ends on a satisfying note, bringing justice across the generations as Stanley’s natural goodness, his small but kind acts of honesty and individual justice, restore balance and honor to the descendants of those who were unjustly harmed, prejudiced, and, well, murdered. It is something of an interesting thesis: without taking away anything from Stanley, he brings hope and purpose and freedom to those who unable to bring it to themselves, and all without taking away from anything that is justly his. In fact, in bringing justice to Zero, his friend and the scion of Madame Zeroni’s descendants, he finds a much greater reward for both himself and for Zero. The balancing of the scales means that all are better off, all are more justly rewarded.

Holes Book Cover Holes
Holes Series
Louis Sachar
Juvenile Fiction
Yearling
May 9, 2000
233

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

Filed Under: Young Adult Fiction ·
About Daniel

Dan Burton lives in Millcreek, Utah, where he practices law by day and everything else by night. He reads about history, politics, science, medicine, and current events, as well as more serious genres such as science fiction and fantasy.

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