Holes by Louis Sachar

At this point, most kids have seen this movie…but it doesn’t stop them from getting a lot of new insight about this wonderful book.  When I first started reading this book, there was no movie to see or compare it to.  It’s a well written book that offers a wide variety of things to discuss.  Here’s what the official louissachar.com says about the book: 

And so, Stanley Yelnats seems set to serve an easy sentence, which is only fair because he is as innocent as you or me. But Stanley is not going where he thinks he is. Camp Green Lake is like no other camp anywhere. It is a bizarre, almost otherworldly place that has no lake and nothing that is green. Nor is it a camp, at least not the kind of camp kids look forward to in the summertime. It is a place that once held "the largest lake in Texas," but today it is only a scorching desert wasteland, dotted with countless holes dug by the boys who live at the camp.

The trouble started when Stanley was accused of stealing a pair of shoes donated by basketball great Clyde "Sweetfeet" Livingston to a celebrity auction. In court, the judge doesn't believe Stanley's claim that the shoes fell from the sky onto his head. And yet, that's exactly what happened. Oddly, though, Stanley doesn't blame the judge for falsely convicting him. Instead, he blames the whole misadventure on his "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather." Thanks to this benighted distant relative, the Yelnats family had been cursed for generations. For Stanley, his current troubles are just a natural part of being a Yelnats.

At Camp Green Lake, the warden makes the boys "build character" by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. 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 treacherous warden is searching for something, and before long Stanley begins his own search—for the truth.

Fate conspires to resolve it all—the family curse, the mystery of the holes, the drought that destroyed Green Lake, and also, the legend of Kissing Kate Barlow, an infamous outlaw of the Wild West. The great wheel of justice has ground slowly for generations, but now it is about to reveal its verdict.

We spend a great deal of time talking about books as we read.  I stop and ask them questions about what we’ve read, connections they may have to a specific character or why something has happened.  We make predictions, talk about character traits, infer what the author meant in a specific part of the book, and talk about our reactions to the text and the feelings it may stir within us.  Your children have a lot to say about everything we read and these discussions are one of the best parts about my job.  They gasp, cheer, question, and applaud during these moments…and I love every moment of it.

Here are some things you can do at home while reading with your kids:

•  Ask him/her questions about the story or subject (“Why do you think he did that?”  “What do you think will happen next?”).

•  Ask him/her to retell what you’ve just read in their own words (summary).  Ask him/her to guess what might happen next (predict). 

Sharing a great book is a spectacular way to spend quality time together.  Other ways to read at home:  cook together (reading recipes is a fabulous way to get some reading in!), build something that requires reading directions, write letters to one another (short notes work too!), or play games that require reading.  Magazines, cartoons, graphic novels, instructions, recipes, and pretty much anything they get their hands are all fair game.  Enjoy!