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!
