Holes By Louis Sachar

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); 1st edition (September 2, 2008)
Buy the book: Amazon

"If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." Such is the reigning philosophy at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility where there is no lake, and there are no happy campers. In place of what used to be "the largest lake in Texas" is now a dry, flat, sunburned wasteland, pocked with countless identical holes dug by boys improving their character. Stanley Yelnats, of palindromic name and ill-fated pedigree, has landed at Camp Green Lake because it seemed a better option than jail. No matter that his conviction was all a case of mistaken identity, the Yelnats family has become accustomed to a long history of bad luck, thanks to their "no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather!" Despite his innocence, Stanley is quickly enmeshed in the Camp Green Lake routine: rising before dawn to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet in diameter; learning how to get along with the Lord of the Flies-styled pack of boys in Group D; and fearing the warden, who paints her fingernails with rattlesnake venom. But when Stanley realizes that the boys may not just be digging to build character--that in fact the warden is seeking something specific--the plot gets as thick as the irony.

In this book Stanley goes to camp Green Lake for committing a crime he did not do! He went to camp Green Lake to become good :) and to dig holes :(.  At Camp Green Lake, there is no lake....no water at all!  Stanley becomes "the cave man" and he becomes part of group D's little group that they all have nick-names for each other, like Barf Bag and Squid. Then one day Stanley finds a gold nail polish lid in the dirt and he sees that is says: K. B.  and he think it belonged to Kissing-Kate-Barlow, a famous out-law! He has to find out, and he wants to know if that spot was the spot where his great grandfather was robbed by Kissing-Kate-Barlow.

I listened to this on audio and I liked the reader a lot! He's probably my 5th favorite haha!  The reader is Kerry Beyer (IT'S A BOY!) He did a lot of voices and they were really good!

I liked this book and thought is was a little weird because they had to dig holes and that Stanley was so big but he did not defend himself at all even when kids smaller then him beat him up. I liked the book and the way it would go back in time to kissing-Kate-Barlow was still a school teacher and good and nice. I also liked how Stanley found everything while the other boys got dirt. I think Zero is my 1st favorite character.  Zero does not talk much and he only becomes interesting at the end.  My 2nd Kissing-Kate-Barlow 3rd is the warden. GO KISSING-KATE-BARLOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YEAH THIS IS WHAT I"M TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!