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    Holes
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    Holes
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    Holes
    Audiobook4 hours

    Holes

    Written by Louis Sachar

    Narrated by Kerry Beyer

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Winner of the Newbery Medal and the National Book Award! The #1 New York Times bestselling, modern classic in which boys are forced to dig holes day in and day out.

    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.

    WINNER OF THE BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK AWARD
    A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE CHILDREN'S BOOK
    SELECTED FOR NUMEROUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR AND ALA HONORS 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateSep 23, 2003
    ISBN9781400085828
    Unavailable
    Holes
    Author

    Louis Sachar

    When Louis Sachar was going to school, his teachers always pronounced his name wrong. Now that he has become a popular author of children’s books, teachers all over the country are pronouncing his name wrong. It should be pronounced “Sacker,” like someone who tackles quarterbacks or someone who stuffs potatoes into sacks. Mr. Sachar's first book, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, was accepted for publication during his first year of law school. After receiving his law degree, he spent six years asking himself whether he wanted to be an author or a lawyer before deciding to write for children full-time. His books include Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Wayside School Is Falling Down, Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, and Holes, winner of a Newbery Medal and National Book Award.

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    Reviews for Holes

    4/5

    5,807 ratings369 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Stanley was incorrectly arrested for and convicted of a crime, so he had to pick between jail or Camp Green Lake. He picks camp, which isn’t the type of camp he wished it was. All day, every day, he and his fellow inmates have to dig holes where the lake once was. Each hole has to be five feet deep and five feet wide, and they’re to tell the warden if they find anything interesting. That piques Stanley’s curiosity, and he’s convinced that the holes are being dug to find something specific - he just has to find out what, and then prove it to the authorities. Very interesting story with Sachar’s signature wit.
    • 2/5
      Stanley (Caveman) sent to Camp Green Lake where boys are forced to a dig 5ft x 5ft hole every day in a giant dry lake bed. And it all ties in with the legend of his great great grand father who failed to fullfil his promise to Madame Zeroni who gave him a pig. Its dark and highly symbolic. Easy read but it seemed kind of empty to me.
    • 4/5
      I had 2 people (adults) tell me they really loved this book.It's different, very readable but a new look at some old memes (bullying of fat kids, juvenile delinquents) in a setting that would not pass a social services review. This is not a reality-based book, yet Sachar does a great job of portraying the thought processes of this 5th grader. I like how the back story is tied in, and how all these disparate people's lives come together in one place.
    • 5/5
      Stanley Yelnats is a bit of a loser, and most kids can identify with that feeling. Where many books have ten-year-olds dealing with bullies at their school, Holes places Stanley at a cruel labor camp for juvenile delinquents. Through a series of bizarre coincidences, Stanley learns to have confidence in himself by learning to deal with his unfortunate circumstances and rises above them. This coming-of-age story includes curses and wild-west lore, but manages to address major themes like the struggles of poverty and the American Dream; and it does so without seeming preachy, long-suffering, or patronizing. This quality is what makes it such a good book for a pre-teen: it is a wonderful introduction to the world of literature. Holes is one of a few formative books that influenced the way I saw the world. I read it first when I was ten or eleven years old, and I was drawn in by the imagery of the desert, particularly the "thumb of God" where Stanley and Zero find water and onions. At that time, my favorite books were ghost stories, fantasy, and Harry Potter, so I wasn't sure what I would think of a story about a boy sent out to Texas to dig holes, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I will always recommend this book to kids.
    • 5/5
      This book is very captivating! Sachar did a great job of captivating the reader the way he set up the book with flashbacks of the main characters grandfathers stories. Each character in this book is well developed and realistic. Loved this book!!!
    • 3/5
      A Fun and Easy Read
    • 5/5
      awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    • 4/5
      Stanley Yelnats has found himself at Camp Green Lake as punishment for stealing some sneakers. At the camp he meets some other boys his age, like a kid named Zero, and together they dig holes for the Warden. Stanley figures out how to overcome his family's bad luck, and Zero learns that he's anything but stupid, which is how he's usually been described. To get through all of his challenges Stanley needs to reason carefully and think two steps ahead of himself.For this story for the character of Stanley, 5th graders could analyze the choices that Stanley makes. They might make a list of all the choices he's faced with, and they might discuss the merits of each. Stanley seems to make his decisions with a fair amount of foresight. Like him, groups of students could explain their thinking about how some choices may be better than others, and why. They might look at themselves through the characters of Stanley and Zero. Would they make the same choices that they did if they were in the same situation?
    • 4/5
      Holes is a humorous and entertaining story. The story is well crafted by the author and as the book ends, the pieces of the plot fall into place perfectly. This light-hearted story can be enjoyed by readers of all ages. Teens should be able to identify with the awkward and overweight Stanley and enjoy his character's gradual transformation and triumph. I believe this book would even be a good choice as a Hi-Lo book.
    • 5/5
      Its a good book.
    • 4/5
      This is a good book
    • 5/5
      Holes is a book for older children, full of murder and mystery. Who actually stole the shoes that landed on Stanley Yelnats? Why do these boys have to dig holes as punishment? What are they looking for? Holes unveils the truth of what happened all those years ago, as the curse on the Yelnats family is finally removed after all of those years.
    • 3/5
      I think this may be one of those books that you have to read at a very specific point in your life or it just won't work for you. It certainly didn't do anything for me. I completely missed the humor and found it much more strange than funny.
    • 5/5
      My middle school daughter read this! Very, very good book. Couldn't stop reading!
    • 3/5
      Protagonist Stanley Yelnats is the fourth Stanley in his family. His great-great-grandfather traveled from Latvia to the United States, unaware that he was cursed because he forgot to keep a promise. Whenever bad things happen, his family always blames that curse. So it is only the bad luck caused by Stanley's 'no-good-dirty-rotten pig-stealing-great-great grandfather' when Stanley is hit on the head by a pair of sneakers and consequently accused of stealing them from a children's orphanage. The boy is faced with the decision of either going to jail or going to Camp Green Lake. For Stanley, whose family is very poor, Camp Green Lake seems to be the obvious choice as he thinks of it as some kind of summer camp. This, however, turns out to be a big misconception. Camp Green Lake is a correctional facility for boys. Located in the desert, there is no lake as the name of the camp might have suggested. Instead, there is just dust, a few tents and many holes. Those holes are the right means to turn bad boys into good boys according to the Warden of Camp Green Lake. Each boy has to dig one hole every day to 'build character'. However, Stanley soon finds out that there is more to the holes than the Warden lets out.In this young adult novel, the reader follows the development of protagonist Stanley, who progresses from being bullied at school to being a courageous young boy at Camp Green Lake. While the narrator clearly shows his opinion about the effectiveness of digging holes to 'build character', ironically, it is exactly this that helps Stanley in his development in the end. The novel explores the meaning of friendship in a world of hardship for boys who come from poor families or do not even know their families. To my mind, the novel is less criticism of teenage correctional facilities or boot camps, but rather a story revolving around a likeable protagonist everyone can sympathize with. It is Stanley and his relationships to the other boys in the story that are most important in unfolding a plot that is almost secondary. Eventually, Holes follows Stanley in his endeavor to step out of the hole that is his life.I would recommend this novel to teenagers and any other readers interested in young adult fiction. 3 stars.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. It has adventure, daring, thrills, and the supernatural, all of which I liked. I also like how it was written. Louis Sachar did an excellent job with this book. There are many quotes in this book which spoke to me such as, "I'm not stupid, I just don't like answering questions." The characters seemed very real and faced problems that were realistic like bullying. I especially liked how Mr. Sachar portrayed Stanley. He made the character likeable and vulnerable. He portrays Stanley as a soft hearted and vulnerable. By the end of th story, he has toughened up a lot and is able to stand up for himself. My favorite part were the flashbacks of Kate and Sam. I love how Mr. Sachar throws in the bit of romance to enhance the plot. The main themes of the book is determination and patience. Stanley has to be determined to make the best of his situation. He also had to be patient in dealing with his situation.
    • 5/5
      Holes is a book about a boy name stanley who has bad luck. One day he had to go to camp green lake and he thought it would be really fun. He had to dig holes every single day. He wanted to leave but he found something a book that said his name. Stanley and Zero his best friend at the camp had to hid it but the wordan found out and she wanted it. Stanley said no and called his lawer and she came and brought Stanley and Zero home. Zero got to see his Mom and Sanley stayed with his family.Holes was a really good book i willl really love to read it again. The auther really knows how to write a book because it was amazing. I think that all schools should let kids read this book. At first i didnt like it but i kept on reading the book . I loved it and i told people to read it and they loved it to.
    • 5/5
      Holes is a book about a boy who comes from a rather unlucky family. the plot of the story is the boy is sent to a juvenile detention facility in the middle of the Texas desert. he is sent there because he was accused of stealing some shoes which he hadn't but since his family was so poor the only choice he had was to go to a juvenile detention facility. the facility he was going to made the kids there do extremely hard work it was that they had to dig holes in a dried up lake looking for some thing that the book doesn't state. when the boy arrives he carbine has 4 other kids in it 3 of them are talkative while one named zero never talks later on in the book while the boy is out digging they the workers bring a truck full of water so they can refill there bottles so what the boy and his new found friends do is the knock out the driver and steal the truck they drove in circles and all over the digging field until they drove into a hole and then the guard woke up and punished them to extended digging hours with less water so in turn that provoked one of the boys to decide to flee from the facility and try his luck out in the desert and the boy was zero so this made the main character get sad because him and the boy were good friends and he feared that zero would die in the desert so the boy went out ran away to and began his search for his friend after hours of walking in the desert he found a wooden thing in the sad so he went up to it and found an entrance he entered and to his surprise he found zero who was seeping with a bunch of jars around him he woke his friend and asked him if he was ok and zero said he was fine because he found the thing they were in and it had jars of an unknown substance which they both liked so they stayed there until the ran out of the jars of stuff and the main character told zero about a oasis legend and they began a journey for it they found it and stayed there for a while until they decided to go back to the juvenile detention facility. when they arrived the main character found his parents there and the had a lawyer and a few cops with them and zero and his friend found out that they are now free to go.I gave this book the rating it has because it is a very good book. I think its a good book because it has a very good plot line to it. I also enjoyed the vivid details it gave because they weren't to much but not to little also they were just the right amount. I hope to read this book again sometime soon and understand it more. I hope you find this book as enjoyable as I did.
    • 5/5
      You know one thing you never see in YA -- kids in prison. Well, he's not really in juvey, but an "camp for troubled teens". Which is not so much a camp as slave labor -- also not often seen in YA. How he gets sent to this obviously corrupt and unaccredited alternative to jail, I don't know. That's the biggest implausibility, but if you get past that, it's a compelling story. And that's because the author is doing things you don't see in YA -- living among criminals, manipulation by adults, ambiguity on who to trust, sins of the father -- along with humor like stinky shoes and onion eating. Heavy stuff for a kid's book. But I know kids can take that stuff, so I like it. It's not just one story, it's a couple stories, but they all come together. All the set pieces, motifs, characters meet each other in a dynamic way -- part Western, part prison story, part funny YA book -- so you're getting a meal with flavorful and different side dishes. Each is different but they all complement each other in ways you didn't expect.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed reading the book Holes by Louis Sachar. The story has great characters that the author gives unique personalities to throughout the story. In addition, the plot of this story is very unique, no one could possibly infer what type of punishment the main character, Stanley will have to endure. The main character Stanley or "Caveman", as the rest of his newly acquired, delinquent friends call him, is sent away to "Camp Green Lake". This isn't your typical summer camp, and it doesn't take long before Stanley is five feet deep within a hole, digging in a dried up wasteland. Stanley is amongst a few other kids who were sent away at this camp, when they come across a foreign object in the ground. This story creates suspense as the reader tries to piece together what will come of this object and what is its significance. Holes is a great story of mystery and inner relationships amongst a group of unlikely friends.
    • 2/5
      My kid liked this better than I did. I thought it was mostly phoned in, with a flimsy plot, a lot of cheap shots and cardboard characters. Then the movie came out, and I understood. It was meant to be a movie all the time, it was only pretending to be a book.
    • 5/5
      This might possibly be the best children's book ever. At least out of those not written by Daniel Pinkwater.
      Plus, the movie they made of it was actually good.
    • 5/5
      The author did a fantastic job of weaving the past and present together and bringing everything full circle in this book in a way that even young children could understand. It could have easily gotten very complicated and convoluted but he managed to make it intricate yet understandable. My second grader read this book on his own and figured it all out. I read this book aloud to my first grader which worked out nicely because I could discuss it with him as we went along and make sure he understood it. Most of the time he did on his own and he always did after we had a conversation.Both my boys can be sensitive to darker plots and humor but they both really enjoyed this book - it wasn't too much for them. It's recommended for third grade and up but I found it appropriate for my first and second grader. The only mildly inappropriate instance is when one character says, "What the hell?" I didn't even notice when I was reading it but my first grader was quick to point out at our book club meeting that it was his favorite part - because of the "bad" word. Such a proud parenting moment.Speaking of book club, this was a great selection for the Intergenerational Book Club (IGBC) at my church. There were kids from first through fifth grade (mostly boys) and all of them enjoyed this book. For snacks we had worms and dirt (made by the kids), doughnut holes, and pumpkin onion cookies. (Onions play an important role in the story.)
    • 5/5
      I am the kind of person who loves to think about what the world was like before I knew it and this book paints that picture to perfection. It bounces from time period to time period, following both Stanley's family and the location where he has currently been plopped into. The story practically paints a picture in the present and the past, overlapping each other in an almost theatrical blend. Where we once saw a lake, we now see a barren land, where the boat sank, it is now shelter from the sun, exposed to the air.There is a moral to the story, of course, dealing with the building of character and being loyal to your friends, but there is also a huge mystery slowly creeping up on the unsuspecting reader. With the turn of each page you fall deeper into the plot and discover midway through that questions you never knew you were asking had been answered while answers you had no idea you were looking for begin to dangle tantalizingly in front of you like rain clouds on a hot day in the sun, bringing on more questions.Easily deserving of the Newbery award, this is a book that should be a must read for all young readers. The creative writing style is sure to inspire while the mystery sucks you in and the story has you reading completely to the end in one awesome sitting.
    • 4/5
      Story follows Stanely and his unfortunate life. Getting in trouble for stealing shoes he did not steal and he is sent to a detention center where the boys dig holes. While at the center he luck begins to change from a curse put on his family many years ago. Great story of courage, character, and loyalty.
    • 4/5
      Stanley Yelnat's (Stanley spelt backwards) family has a history of bad luck going back generations, so he is not too surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre. Nor is he very surprised when he is told that his daily labour at the camp is to dig a hole, five foot wide by five foot deep, and report anything that he finds in that hole. The warden claims that it is character building, but this is a lie and Stanley must dig up the truth of the past. The warden is looking for something, but what?????This is a wonderfully inventive, compelling novel that is both serious and funny.
    • 5/5
      I am sad that I have waited until I was almost 19 to read this book. It was truly a wonderfully unique story, with creative characters that you grow close to. There is a major and a minor plot, and the minor plot is about a hundred years earlier, but directly connects to the major current plot. It is so cool to see how Louis Sachar develops a history that becomes to relevant to the major plot of this story- although the characters in the book do not know the complete history, as a reader, it is so exciting to build the connections between the past in the present.Stanely Yelnats is sent away to Camp Greenlake for a crime he did not commit. There he is sentenced to dig 5 foot wide by 5 foot deep holes, one every day with all the other young boy delinquents. What the boys do not know is that they are actually searching for a burried treasure. This treasure is actually of Kissin Kate Barlow, who lived a hundred years earlier in the same location. Also, the same location as Stanley's great great grandfather who is believed to have been cursed for breaking a promise to a gyspy. As Sachar switches between the past and the present, the reader begins to unravel the truth about the past and the present and how they are connected to Stanley Yelnats' life.Extremely creative, and a must read. Great for middle school, but even a great easy read for high schoolers.
    • 5/5
      Great plot, good characters. Author builds in a lot of plot conclusion and irony at the end of the book.
    • 4/5
      This is a great story for upper elementary or middle school students. It follows the story of Stanley who gets wrongfully accused for a crime and sent to dig holes with other boys. At this camp, his learns about his family's past and breaks the curse that has followed his family and given them all bad luck. A very interesting read.
    • 5/5
      This is one of my favorite children's chapter books! It is a good read for upper elementary and middle school students. The book is about Stanley Yelnats, who has had bad luck his whole life, and is blamed for a crime he didn't commit. He is shipped off to a boy's correction camp, and begins to discover things about his past that could help relieve him and his family of all their bad luck!